


Translating Magic

by LadyChris



Category: Fairy Tail, Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Crossover, Gen, Major Original Character(s)
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-01-04
Updated: 2018-01-14
Packaged: 2018-09-14 18:57:22
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 9
Words: 35,995
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9198569
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LadyChris/pseuds/LadyChris
Summary: In search for help protecting his school Albus Dumbledore turns to friends in another world. He brings a team of young mages from Fairy Tail to Hogwarts where they should protect Harry Potter and the school in general from Voldemort and his Death Eaters.But one of the mages grew up on Earth - she is forced to translate between the cultures and the very different magics while trying to fulfill their goals.---I'm not yet sure about too much romance but as I'm shipping NaLu and GaLevy I will have to include bits.English is not my mother-tongue, please correct me if necessary.I'm open for suggestions, if you have a great idea, but I don't promise to use it.





	1. Old Friends

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Fairy Tail Goes to Hogwarts](https://archiveofourown.org/works/6997726) by [Free_Spirit140](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Free_Spirit140/pseuds/Free_Spirit140). 



It was a normal day in the town of Magnolia in the kingdom of Fiore. 

Well, as normal as life can be, when the kingdom’s craziest guild has its guildhall in your town. The townspeople performed their daily chores, looked for bargains at the market, and kept an eye out for any magic and flying pieces of furniture from the guildhall. Another brawl had just died down moments ago, so anything could happen. Even one or two mages might come flying out the guild if they had angered their master enough.

So when a loud noise like the crack of a whip was heard near the building everyone scurried away to safety. Thus no one saw an old man with a long white beard appear out of thin air. He stood in the middle of the square, straightened his unusual purple robes and studied the sign over the entrance of the guildhall. After tapping his glasses, ears, and throat with a stick, he nodded and marched straight up the path towards the building. The elderly wizard didn’t get very far before two young men burst out of the gate and almost knocked him over on their flight from something or somebody inside the guild.

The pair apologised profusely and took up running again, when the stranger asked them, “Are you wizards of Fairy Tail?” 

That stopped one of them in his tracks. The rosy-haired boy turned around and asked him, “What the heck are wizards? We’re mages!” just to get hit over the head by a young woman with brilliant scarlet hair. 

“Mind your language, Natsu!” she scolded the nearly unconscious boy. 

Then she turned to address the stranger, “You are standing in front of the guildhall of Fairy Tail and all three of us are mages of this guild.” 

Before she could go on to introduce them any further the old man smiled brightly and interjected, “Fabulous! So much energy. Just what I was looking for. Would you mind escorting me to your guildmaster? Is it still good old Makarov?” And without waiting for a response he turned towards the building and walked right in, as if he had been there before. 

“Makarov Dreyar, my friend, where are you hiding?”

The short, old man at the bar flinched in recognition of the voice. He already dreaded the coming conversation he could now no longer avoid. But still, he looked forward to seeing an old friend again. He took a final swig from his beer and then jumped up onto the counter, much to the dismay of the girls working behind it. “Albus! What brings you here? Is it time already?” 

“No, not at all,” the vibrantly coloured stranger assured. “I am here because I have a job for your guild’s youngsters. The young lady I met outside, as well as those two gentlemen would make a great start for the group I had in mind,” he said, gesturing to the two youths who had almost mowed him down.

Albus Dumbledore, headmaster of Great Britain’s Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry making an official request to Fairy Tail left Makarov speechless. He just stared at the old wizard with his mouth hanging open until a crash snapped him out of his shock. The noise came from a side entrance being slammed open by the one person he didn’t want to see at this moment. Elyx Dreyar, his granddaughter, came bounding into the room, elated by how much her last job had earned her. She hardly looked around while babbling about her fight and all the jewel she had earned, weaving her way through the guild towards her grandfather. Therefore, she didn’t notice the visitor, until she almost bumped into him. Upon recognising her headmaster joy followed by panic flashed across her face, before she could hide her emotions. 

The moment the girl stood behind him, frozen in shock, Dumbledore turned around to greet another possible recruit judging by the youthful voice. But he immediately recognised the brilliant violet eyes and golden hair of his former student and ward. “Elyx! What happened to you?!” he exclaimed in concern, looking at the girl who should have been a woman already.

Upon his cry the guild fell silent, preparing themselves to protect their comrade’s feelings from the visitor from another world, as they realised now. To shield Elyx and Dumbledore from his noisy “brats,” Makarov ushered them into a private room where they could clear up the situation without the interference of the more boisterous members of the guild.

While outside the study, the guild started up a ruckus once the door was closed, you could have heard a feather drop inside. Elyx stood somewhere to the left, her head hanging low, while Dumbledore paced in the right part of the room, stopping from time to time to look at her, trying to reconcile expectation and reality. Makarov took a deep breath and led Elyx to one of the armchairs in the room, while gesturing for Dumbledore to sit down in the other. Once both were settled he seated himself on the sofa between them. 

Before he could start his explanation of Elyx’ condition and how it came about, the girl herself spoke up, “Uncle Albus, there was an accident when grandpa finally allowed me to go on my first job without him or Laxus when I turned seventeen. I was trying to protect my friends from a demon that attacked us right after our job. I succeeded, but I used up too much energy for a spell I hadn’t mastered. I fell unconscious and when I woke up again I was told I couldn’t age anymore – my body is frozen in time. But apart from that I’m as healthy as can be. My magicks – both of them – grew more quickly than normal, and still continue to grow in spurts. It’s no one’s fault but mine, for being reckless, thinking I could use a spell straight from a book. Grandpa still beats himself up about not being able to protect me. I’m sorry we didn’t tell you right away, but I wanted to deal with it here before even thinking about there. I really didn’t want you to find out like this; I’m sorry my decision caused you pain.”  
After she gave this speech, sitting up straight and holding eye-contact all the time, she slumped, as if someone had cut her strings, too tired to even sit up straight, now that the elation about her job and the anxiety about this surprise meeting faded. Dumbledore had listened and watched her attentively and conjured up a cup of her favourite black tea for her. He handed her the beverage without a word and waited until she had finished drinking, like he had always done when she was upset as a child. Then he took off his glasses, cleaned them with his sleeve and, after putting them back on, looked at his ward closely. When Elyx was beginning to feel anxious again, he finally spoke up, “It was reckless indeed, but I’m also proud of you. You protected your friends and seem to have been dealing with the uncomfortable results maturely.” 

At this, Elyx and Makarov gave a hollow laugh. At Dumbledore’s confused look, Makarov explained, “She didn’t take it so well at first. She was very childish and reckless for the first year or two. I was forced to send her to Tenroujima alone for three months to calm her down. Otherwise she might have become a threat.” 

Dumbledore nodded his understanding.

“Well, I’m glad you figured it out, no matter how long it took. But right now I was thinking about a way to put your condition to good use. Before you joined us, I was explaining to your grandfather that I have a job for some of the guild’s youngsters. Seeing that physically you still fit into that group, I would like you to join the team as well. You would be of great help, aiding the others in navigating Earth and British culture.”

Then he went on to explain about Voldemort’s first demise, Harry Potter and the events of the past four years, including Voldemort’s return. “…Because of this new threat I want to tighten security around Harry and Hogwarts in general. And this is where Fairy Tail comes into the picture. I want to invite some youngsters to our school as exchange students from Japan – as their culture is closest to Fiore’s. They will participate in classes, learn our magic, but also be able to fight if anyone or anything should threaten my pupils. You could formally finish your education with us, Elyx, while doing this job. So, what do you think?”

“This Harry is now in fifth grade, right? That would work perfectly, because I just mastered fourth grade magic,” Elyx mused. 

“That’s good. But keep in mind that you would also have to try to fit in regarding your behavior and appearance. Right now, I would have guessed you to be about nineteen years of age, but that won’t work, it would raise too many questions,” Dumbledore interposed, taking in Elyx’ tight-fitting black and purple adventurer’s gear and elaborate make-up.

“I have to appear younger?! That’s terrible!” she whined, rushing over to a mirror to make sure her appearance hadn’t changed from the thought alone, immediately putting some stray locks back into her braid.  
Dumbledore could just look on in confusion. He knew Elyx as a person who always dressed with care but this kind of vanity was new to him. 

Makarov walked over to Elyx and took her hands to stop her from finding new “faults” in her appearance. He looked straight into her eyes and stated: “You are a capable young woman no matter what you look like. Now calm down and remember what you are.” 

“A Fairy Tail mage” The usual spark returned to her eyes.

“Yes. And what does that mean?”

“I can do anything for my comrades. Even dress up as a fifteen-year-old,” she admitted begrudgingly.

“Good. Will you take the job?”

“Sure. I can’t leave my comrades alone in my other world.”

“Then it’s settled.” With this, Makarov turned to Dumbledore.

“Now I have a few questions for clarification if you don’t mind.” 

He went and took up his place on the sofa again.

“How many mages did you have in mind? You might want to pass off one or two of the older members as teachers?” Sending a few older mages for support and to reign in the younger ones was always a wise plan.

“And of course I also need to know when the job is supposed to start, how long it will last and what the payment will be?” The men launched into planning out the details, while Elyx silently drifted off to sleep in her armchair, completely drained and content to have her two guardians around again.

\---------------------------------------

Natsu and Gray followed Erza back into the guild, curious about the old man they’d nearly crashed into. The moment they saw his reaction to spotting Elyx they knew where he came from. Since they spent a lot of time with her they knew how Elyx dreaded that someone from there might find out about her accident and its consequences and they wanted to rush to the front of the guild to protect her from that grief. But Erza pulled them back, knowing this was something Elyx could and had to deal with on her own. They had grown to be a very tight-knit group after the accident, after all Natsu, Gray and Erza were the friends Elyx saved.

When the door closed behind their friend and her two guardians, the guild – most of them aware of the accident and the others always in for a brawl – went crazy.

“What do you think is going on, Lucy? Everyone’s going berserk!” a small, blue-haired girl asked an older blonde, while ducking to avoid being hit by a flying chair. 

“Again,” the white cat in a dress who sat on the table in front of her added.

“I’ve got no clue. Let’s go ask Mira,” Lucy replied. She stood up to make her way to the bar but immediately regretted it, when one of her guildmates came flying at her. She sent him back where he came from with a hearty kick, before pulling the girl and the cat after her. 

“Mirajane, what’s all this about?!” Lucy shouted to the white-haired woman behind the bar. 

“Ask your team, they know better!” And with that Mira took the last remaining bottles of sake and hid them under the counter, before getting knocked out by a flying bottle the moment she came back up.

Lucy and her friend missed Mira being taken out as they were already headed towards the back of the hall, where they saw the unmistakable flash of scarlet that indicated Erza. The warrior mage stood there holding Natsu and Gray back from joining the brawl. 

“Wendy, Lucy, are you okay?” She nodded to them in greeting, not letting go of the boys.

“Yeah. Erza, what’s going on? Is Elyx alright?” Wendy asked.

“She will be. That man is a visitor from her past it seems. But I think it’d be better if she told you herself.”

Soon after, the door to the study opened and out came Makarov and Dumbledore with a sleepy Elyx trailing after them. Makarov jumped onto the bar, shouting, “Brats! Listen up! My old friend Dumbledore came here to request our assistance. I know you are upset because of his reaction to Elyx, but they have resolved the situation, so focus on the job. 

“We need about ten mages between the ages of thirteen and seventeen for this. Dumbledore already directly requested Erza, Natsu and Gray, and I agree with his choice. Elyx also agreed to be part of the team. That leaves six more who may volunteer. But be warned: You will have to live in a different world for a long time. You’ll need to learn their magic and might possibly face a great threat.” With that he sat down and waited for their reactions.

Expectedly Erza, Gray and Natsu were shocked to hear they were being sent to another world. But as it was the world Elyx had lived in, they were also curious. Lucy and Wendy, not wanting to be left behind, volunteered immediately. 

“Juvia volunteers! Juvia wants to be with Gray-sama, even in another world,” the obsessive water-mage chipped in immediately.

“Another world?” a girl Lucy’s age with light-blue hair mused. “Maybe I can learn some new magic there. And new languages! I volunteer!”

“If Levy goes, we go too.” Two guys popped up behind the girl and volunteered. 

“Jet, Droy, you are too old. You have to stay,” Makarov stopped them.

“Can I go too? I’d like to see Elyx’ world,” a young white-haired girl asked timidly. 

Immediately Mirajane burst out from behind the counter: “You can’t go to another world again, Lisanna! I couldn’t bear to do without you again. It would bring up too many memories.” 

Her brother Elfman showed up right behind Mirajane, “But now she’s with Fairy Tail. She’s a man now. She’ll come back.” And he went over to hug his little sister before turning to Elyx, “I know you’ll take good care of her.”

“Don’t worry, I’ll bring her back.”

“That’s a man!” Elfman boomed, letting his huge hand fall on Elyx’ shoulder with a force that would have knocked anyone but a true Fairy Tail mage over.

“… eight … nine. I need one more volunteer!” Makarov shouted, banging the bar with an enlarged fist.

In a corner, a tall, black-haired mage with piercings grunted. 

“Thanks, Gajeel, you’re in.”

Gajeel looked disbelievingly at his master: “But I… Why?”

But he already knew that all arguing would be useless, when the master jumped off the bar again and led them into the back room, where he spent the next hour with explaining everything, aided from time to time by Dumbledore or Elyx.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Updated


	2. Getting ready

Elyx was elated. She would get to go back to her old school and be able to use her wand-magic on a regular basis again, not just in-between jobs. That also made the burden placed on her, the preparation of their trip, easier. 

“What do we need to start with?” Dumbledore asked her, while they walked along the channel on their way to Elyx’ home.

“I think the wands are most important. Those guys aren’t used to using the same magic you do, so they’ll need special wands to be able to channel the energy they know in an inconspicuous way,” Elyx explained while kicking up a rock.

“What do you mean? Do you use different magic here than in Britain?” the old wizard asked, bewildered.

“Yup. Back in Britain I used a kind of magic that was more abstract and theoretical. Here it’s more connected to the whole body, you see?” she took up a fighting stance and moved her hands in a simple pattern. Immediately, Dumbledore’s robes began to expand and move, wrapping around him for a moment before she gestured again and they reverted to normal.

The headmaster was taken aback. He had hardly seen any Fiorean magic back when Elyx left, except for a transportation spell. Seeing his old ward use this extraordinary magic and feeling the power behind it, he began to doubt that it was a good idea to invite a bunch of those mages to Hogwarts, fearing for his beloved school. But at the same time, he hoped this power would be able to protect his students from Voldemort.

“To be able to fit in, my nakama will need wands, but if I imagine Natsu using a normal wand from Ollivander’s I’m afraid he might just burn it in the blink of an eye.” Elyx’ explanation pulled Dumbledore out of his reverie. 

“I see. I think Mr. Ollivander will be able to come up with the proper woods, but maybe it would be helpful to bring him some core materials from Fiore,” Dumbledore suggested.

“Yeah. I thought Hakobe ice would be great for Gray. I still have some left over from when Lucy once gave some to me. And I already talked to Lucy – she’ll get something from the Spirit World for her own core.”

Dumbledore nodded in agreement. “And the others?”

“That’s where we’re going right now. Up ahead is a great magic shop where I think we’ll be able to get some stuff. But, for Natsu, I’m afraid we will have to get dragon fire in Britain. The dragons here disappeared some years ago.” Aas she finished her explanation, she stopped in front of a shop with a colourful sign stating “Ito’s Magic Store”.

The shop looked a bit shabby, and the windows were filled with books, unusually designed household items, and some contraptions Dumbledore couldn’t even try to guess the purpose of. Elyx entered the store first, holding the door for her uncle and greeting the shop owner, sitting behind a counter in the back of the store. “Good afternoon, Ito-san.”

“Good afternoon, Elyx-chan. How can I help you today? I just got in a new shipping of gale-force reading glasses. Do you want to see them?” Immediately, he reached under the counter to pull out his newest acquisitions, but Elyx stopped him in his tracks.

“Maybe later, Ito-san. Today I’m here on guild-business. This is our newest client, Dumbledore-sama. He is looking for some special goods and I’m here to help him, as he is not from F-… around here.” She stopped herself before saying he was not from Fiore, as that would have been extremely uncommon and drawn too much attention on them.

“Of course! How can I be of service, Dumbledore-sama?” The shopkeeper immediately turned his attention to the new customer, taking in the unusual clothing and the golden frame of his glasses, which made him hope for a client of some wealth.

Dumbledore looked to Elyx, not sure how to respond, as he didn’t even know what Elyx wanted to buy here. But she kept her attention fixed on the man behind the counter, while pulling an empty sheet of paper from her bag.

“He doesn’t speak our language. I’ve got the list here: He needs five light pens, highest quality. And three top-quality gale-force reading glasses. Furthermore, one of those iron swords from Bellum you offered me last time I was here and the feathered fan you imported from Caelum that’s hung right behind you.” After these listing things Elyx took a break to think, but acted as if she was just giving the shop owner time to fetch the things. Once they were all laid out in front of her, she continued.

“He also needs a pocket dimension port generator and one MasqueradeX.” She tapped her finger against her lower lip, pretending to go over the list again, before she nodded and put the paper away. “That’s all for Dumbledore-sama. How much is it?”

After some mumbling and counting the price came down to 310.000 jewel, but after a stern glare from Elyx Ito dropped it to 300.000 straight. Elyx dug out the money from a purse with the Fairy Tail insignia. 

“Do you need anything for yourself now, Elyx-san?” Dumbledore noted the change in address and had to suppress a chuckle, in order to avoid blowing his cover. Instead, he began to look around the shop, while Elyx inspected the glasses she had been offered earlier.

A shelf full of books that offered introductory information on Fiore’s magic especially drew him in, but he avoided it, conscious of the shop keepers stare. Instead, he looked at some of the offered merchandise, until he noticed Elyx was almost done. Then he returned to her side. 

“Would you mind buying me some of the books on the local magic?” he asked her in English.

“That isn’t necessary. I’ve got most of them at my place, and even some more detailed ones. You can borrow them,” Elyx answered absent-mindedly while she looked at a camouflage lacrima. 

But then she looked up to see her uncle gaze longingly at the books. She put the lacrima on the heap of goods she was about to buy before walking over, picking up a copy of her favourite book and putting that to her purchases as well. After paying for these things from a purple and white purse she left the shop with Dumbledore in tow. 

Immediately, she led him further down the road to her apartment, where he would be sleeping in the guest room. Right after closing the door behind them she pulled the book out of the bag and handed it to him. “I thought having one of your own couldn’t hurt. This is my favourite. A bit superficial, but it covers everything from history to variations of magic.”

Dumbledore was elated and began to read right away. Therefore, he didn’t notice Elyx leaving the flat with a small bottle. When she returned about ten minutes later, the sound of the door surprised him and he jumped up, wand drawn and ready to fight. 

Elyx was stunned to see her loving, ever-smiling uncle in a fighting stance, looking as if he was ready to kill, until he realized whom he was facing. “I’m sorry, dear. Old habits die hard,” he murmured, slumping back into her sofa.

“Never mind. You’re talking to a Fairy Tail member. I know what it means to be in unfamiliar territory. It’s better to be cautious than sorry.” She couldn’t keep the pain out of her voice, thinking about all the trouble they had had in the past months. 

To distract herself, she went on to unpack all their purchases and spread them out on the table and floor in her living room.

Dumbledore picked up on the intention and offered, “Would you mind explaining all those things to me?”

“Sure. Those are light pens. You can use them to write anywhere, even in the air. I bought one of them for Levy’s wand core, as she uses script magic. And these glasses are called gale-force reading glasses. They let you read incredibly fast. That comes in handy sometimes, so I bought three for the team. Oh, and one of those is for you. With all the paperwork, it will surely be helpful.” She handed the only pair that wasn’t pink to him. 

He inspected the glasses attentively. They had a thin silver frame, with feather like engravings on the sides. When Elyx encouraged him to put them on and handed him a book, he was elated. The pages flew by, but he took in all the information and so he learned a lot about elemental magic within just a few seconds. 

“This is amazing! I don’t know why we never developed something like this. Thank you, dear,” he enveloped the grinning Elyx in a tight hug. 

After that she explained that the sword was made of the strongest iron found in Earthland and therefore great for Gajeel’s magic. For Wendy, she had bought the fan, because the feathers it was made of came from an extraordinary species of birds that was almost as strong as dragons. “We’ll need one Phoenix tear for her core as well, because she’s also got healing magic. Do you think Fawkes might be willing to help us?”

“Of course. He’ll be overjoyed to see you. I think he misses you. His circles became shorter since you left.”

“Oh no, I hope he’s not ill?” Elyx looked worried for her beloved friend.

“No, just regenerating more often than before. Maybe to shorten the wait – sometimes not even I am able to understand him.” Dumbledore smiled encouragingly. Then he picked up the pocket dimension generator, turning the glowing cube over in his hands.

“That’s a PDG. It opens a small dimension in which you can store a lot of stuff. It is for Erza. She uses a kind of spatial magic, so she will need to be able to connect to a pocket dimension to do any magic at all. I thought we could shrink and elongate it into the shape of a core…” Elyx trailed off not so sure about her idea, now she said it out loud. 

“Good idea. I’ll help Mr. Ollivander with that one,” Dumbledore offered. 

“And that’s a MasqueradeX, it’s for Lisanna. She uses transformational magic called Animal Soul. This is not exactly her magic, but if we disassemble the machine and harvest the lacrima, we’ll get magic power that’s very similar to hers.” She smiled, thinking about her nakama. 

“I not only bought stuff the team could need, but also a heap of materials. Those are rare in Britain – and on earth in general – but here they are very common. I thought I might sell them in Diagon Alley, so we’ll have some spending money and not always rely on you,” she explained, when Dumbledore asked about the rest of her shopping. 

“You didn’t have to do that. I have enough money for you all,” the headmaster objected. 

“I know. But we are used to being independent since we were kids. We always had at least a small income. We all would be uncomfortable living completely off your money.” At that Dumbledore stopped arguing, respecting the pride of the guild-members. 

They spent the rest of the evening talking about the purchases and Fiore in general until the bell of Cardia Cathedral rung eleven times and they went to bed.

\-------------------------------

The next morning, Elyx revealed to Dumbledore that Makarov had forced each member of the team to give her at least 100.000 jewel to purchase their cores and other necessities. She had bought all of their necessary items except for Dumbledore’s book and reading glasses with that money, but to keep up the appearance of guild-business she had changed the look of her purse. 

“What do you mean you changed the appearance? Did you transfigure it? Or did you use an illusion?”

“Actually, I changed the fabric with my magic.” At the questioning look of her uncle, she elaborated, “I believe you remember how I showed you my magic yesterday? I moved your robes and I even made them longer. Other mages wouldn’t be able to do that because I’m a fabric mage.” 

“A fabric mage?” Dumbledore asked for clarification.

“Yup. I can manipulate any fabric to my will. I’m able to shrink or enlarge any piece of fabric, I can make it move, I can even make it change its colour. That’s what I did yesterday with my purse” Because Dumbledore still seemed sceptical she wiped her hand over her comfy blue sweater. 

Immediately, the area she touched bleached and turned into a shining white. When she repeated the gesture it suddenly became red and then green, before returning to its original blue. Dumbledore was fascinated and wanted to learn more about Elyx’ magic, but just then, the pink-haired Natsu burst into the room, followed by an angrily shouting Lucy. 

“You can’t just waltz into another person’s home like that, Natsu! It’s impolite!”

“Good morning Elyx! Gramps said we should come to your place. You wanna teach us something or something like that.”

“Aye, sir!” Happy greeted, circling under the ceiling. 

Elyx just laughed. “Hi guys. You wanna join us for breakfast? Erza, Gray, everyone! Just come in. I’ve got plenty of food.”

Dumbledore was dumbfounded by the speed with which ten mages and three flying cats filled the room, sitting everywhere, debating loudly, fighting and making up within heartbeats, while Elyx vanished into her kitchen. When suddenly sixteen panels of fabric emerged from the kitchen, each carrying a heaped plate to one of the visitors – and two to Natsu –, the commotion died down and everyone dug into their food. Finally, Elyx returned to her seat at the table and calmly ate her croissant, as if nothing had happened at all. 

After they all had their breakfast and seconds and thirds, all served by what Elyx called her tentacles, she stood and said good-bye to Dumbledore, who was expected at the guild to talk to Makarov about something. 

After he left she spent the rest of the day teaching her teammates the basic knowledge they would need for their first few days in Great Britain: etiquette, some of the language, and a brief theory of wand-magic. The practical use of wand-magic would have to wait until they got their wands. She also took great care that everybody got their story straight.

“We will pose as exchange students from Japan’s Tenroujima School for Ancient Magic, an arrangement made because the school couldn’t participate in last-years Triwizard Tournament. We’re all trained in Ancient – wandless – Magic, and want to learn how to use wands.” 

They were going to be split up a bit among the years. As Wendy was just thirteen, she would join the third year. Erza, Juvia and Gajeel were to pose as sixteen-year-olds, so they could be placed in sixth-year while the rest would pose as fifth-years, to have most of the firepower near Harry. 

“Who’s that Harry guy, again?” Natsu crowed from the back of the room, where he was busy playing tag with Happy.

“The boy we have to protect.” 

While Elyx answered patiently, used to Natsu’s antics, Erza forced the boy into his seat and put a firm grip on his shoulder to keep him there.

Once she was sure even Natsu had memorized everything she called it a day and went over to the guildhall for dinner, accompanied by the team.  
“I’m really not sure it’s a good idea if Happy, Carla and Lily come along,” she mentioned to Erza, while cutting up her okonomiyaki. But she hadn’t noticed a certain blue cat flying over her looking for fish.

“Whaaat?! You can’t leave us! We’re part of the team!” Happy began protesting immediately.

“Happy is family! I can’t leave him!” Natsu joined in.

“Wendy wouldn’t make it a day without me,” Carla huffed, crossing her arms.

Elyx just sat there listening to it all, knowing she would have to explain three talking and flying cats – one of them blue – to their schoolmates. After they had calmed down, Erza added, a little detached, “We really should take them along.”

Dumbledore came over to see what was causing such uproar. With his typical benevolent smile, he just shrugged it off and allowed the cats to come along under the condition, that they stay out of the classes and the owlery. 

“We’ll just tell everyone they are Exceed – an ancient and recently rediscovered species of Fantastic Beasts,” he offered.

The next morning, Elyx was done with her preparations and going to accompany Dumbledore back to Earth while the others would stay behind for four more days. She went to Earth earlier because she wanted to acclimatise herself to make sure she would be able to properly help her comrades without being hindered by anything as superfluous as a jet-lag. 

“I’m really glad you brought those magical trunks along. I’m sure the others also will bring much more than necessary,” Elyx thanked Dumbledore when she was done with stuffing all her books, clothes and beauty-products along with some memorabilia into her trunk. But then she turned around and saw the huge heap of materials she had bought for everyone. 

“I don’t think you want to put that into your trunk too,” Dumbledore observed, while holding up a piece of dried fish that gave off a pungent smell. 

“Not really,” Elyx agreed, giving him an apologetic smile. 

“Then I am glad I saw this in a little shop down the road on our way to the guild yesterday,” he said while pulling out a small purple backpack with white and gold seams and details. 

“I put an undetectable extension charm on it, so you can put in anything without anyone knowing. I think you could even compare it to that pocket dimension you bought for Miss Erza.”

Elyx hugged her uncle tightly and pressed a kiss to his cheek before starting to shove all the items into the bag. Once she was done she went to say good-bye to her only remaining family, Makarov and Porlyusica with whom she left a letter for Laxus in case he became reasonable anytime soon, and her friends at the guild. With many tears and even more promises to come back as soon as possible she left. 

Outside Dumbledore waited for her with her trunk and a bottle. “That’s a portkey. It will activate in five minutes. Do you remember how it works?”

“Yep. We hold on tightly and don’t let go, no matter what. It will bring us to a spot you chose beforehand.” 

“Exactly. Now hold on tight.”

Then he tapped her trunk to shrink it so it fit into one of his pockets. The whole guild had formed a circle around them to see her off in traditional Fairy Tail fashion. They all raised their right arm to the sky and formed an “L” with their thumb and index finger and some used their magic to produce fireworks right above them. The members of the Hogwarts team, as they were called now, stood in front of everyone and watched anxiously when suddenly the bottle began to vibrate and Elyx and Dumbledore disappeared with a crack.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry it took me so long, but I want to write an enjoyable story for all of you, so I put extra care in everything.  
> Let me know what you think in the comments. :D
> 
> Updated.


	3. New Old World

Elyx and Dumbledore arrived in London just after sunset.

“I completely forgot about the time-difference. We should warn the others when we go get them”, was the first thing Elyx said once she was back in the world she grew up in. 

Then she looked around carefully, while Dumbledore rummaged through the pockets of his cloak. They stood on a square that was surrounded by shabby-looking unwelcoming houses.

“Where are we? That’s not home. Uncle Albus, why are we here?”

“Because you aren’t needed at home yet, but here. Just give me a second … Ah! There it is.” 

Then he clicked a silver device that looked like a lighter several times and each time the light of a street-light flew into the thing. Once it was completely dark, he pulled out a piece of parchment and showed it to Elyx in the light of his wand. 

“Read it and memorize it. And then look at the houses ahead of us.” 

It said: The Headquarters of the Order of the Phoenix may be found at number twelve, Grimmauld Place, London.

Once Elyx looked up at the houses in front of her and repeated the sentence in her head a door popped up between two of them. Little by little it pushed the other houses apart until there stood a grimy old house with dirty windows. It looked completely uninviting. While Elyx had watched the house appear Dumbledore had burned the parchment, unshrunk her trunk and gathered up their bags. Now he took her by her elbow and led her to the house. 

“Be silent when you enter and don’t go too far, wait for me right inside.” 

With those words he unlocked the door and pushed her gently inside while he turned around to unleash the lights from their prison. In little balls the lights zapped back to their respective lamps and the square was once again bathed in orange light. 

Dumbledore lit his wand again right after he had pulled the door closed after himself. Then he led Elyx down a dark corridor deeper into the house that looked none more welcoming from the inside than from the outside. Everything was dark and dusty and there were creepy rustling sounds all around. But the worst awaited Elyx at the staircase: On a long, fleshy tube there hung a human ear. She screamed out and immediately the weird organ disappeared upstairs, accompanied by the cursing of a young male voice and the laughter of another. At the same time the curtains behind Elyx flew open and the voice of an old woman began shrieking insults. A door at the far end of the hall opened with a crash and a red-haired matron came rushing into the hall, followed by a scraggly-looking black-haired man. 

“Albus, you didn’t say you would bring one of them immediately. I have no bed prepared”, the woman started upon seeing Elyx. 

Simultaneously the man grabbed the curtain behind Elyx and started fighting with the picture of the woman, trying to pull the curtain closed again. After some more shouting they had somehow moved through the door at the end of the hall and down a narrow staircase. They found themselves in a scarcely less gloomy kitchen with a big wooden table in the center, surrounded by benches and chairs. At the far end of the room a fire burned and gave its warm orange light to the otherwise cold room.

“Do you want some tea dear? Do you even understand me?”, the woman asked Elyx who looked quite flustered after the ruckus that was her arrival. 

“Of course I understand you, ma’am. I grew up here in Britain. Some strong black tea with a splash of milk would be wonderful.” 

That left the woman speechless. She looked from the girl in front of her to Dumbledore and back again several times before she asked: “I thought you wanted to get help from a different world? Then who is this?” 

“Well, she is the reason I know of this other world. She was born in that world although she spent the first eleven years of her life here. But that’s a long story. I bet you would prefer hearing it while having some tea.” 

That seemed to remind the woman of her offer and immediately she set off to brew some. 

“May I ask what’s your name?”, Elyx suddenly heard a deep and rather raspy voice from the other end of the table. 

The black-haired man sat there, slightly slumped, and stared at her. 

“Umm… well… It’s Elyx Dreyar. And who are you?” 

“Elyx… Dreyar… No… that’s wrong… Elyx …” 

“When you first met her she went by the name of Elyx McGonagall, as she was adopted by Minerva and raised in Hogwarts”, Dumbledore interrupted his musings.

“Elyx, this is Sirius Black...”, but before he could end his sentence, Elyx shouted out.

“Padfoot!” 

“Lyx!”   
In the blink of an eye Elyx was at the other end of the table, hanging around her old friend’s neck. Laughing he hugged the girl until finally, holding her at arm’s length, he took a closer look at her. 

“You’re too young. You went missing when you were twelve…” 

“Actually, I never went missing. Uncle Albus always knew where I was. And I was eleven.” 

“You knew?! We went looking everywhere for her in the middle of a war and you didn’t tell us?!”, Sirius turned accusingly to Dumbledore. 

But before the headmaster could say anything Elyx explained: “It was because I forbade him to tell you. I went home to my family and as much as I missed you all I needed to stay there, to get to know my world.” 

She knew Sirius was still hurt, but he began to understand, when he pointed out: “But still, you’re what? Sixteen? Girl, it’s been fifteen years and you look like you should still be at Hogwarts!” 

“Sixteen? What did I do wrong? I should have put more care into my make-up and clothes.”

She pulled out a mirror and began to look for anything that made her younger, but Dumbledore stopped her by magically calling the mirror to himself. 

“Stop it, Elyx. It’s good you look that age. That’s what we’re aiming for. In the house are some of your future schoolmates.”

Then he offered Sirius a shortened version of the explanation he got in Fiore, and corrected him about the ages. 

Suddenly a tray with tea and four cups appeared in front of them and surprised Elyx so much, that she jumped up with a squeal and moved into her preferred fighting-stance. 

“I’m sorry, dear, I didn’t mean to scare you”, the woman offered, while taking a seat at the table. 

“By the way, I am Molly Weasley, I’m taking care of the household here.” 

“Elyx Dreyar-McGonagall, pleased to meet you, ma’am.” 

“You don’t have to use ma’am, just Mrs. Weasley or Molly is alright.” 

After those introductions they settled down for tea and a chat until Elyx remembered why her arrival had turned into such a flurry of shouts. 

“Oh, I wanted to ask what was that weird ear-thing hanging down from the upper floor? It really creeped me out.” 

That sent Mrs. Weasley shooting out the kitchen and up the stairs where suddenly a lot of feet seemed to run away followed by her infuriated shouting. Elyx was left completely confused while Dumbledore and Sirius had a good laugh out of it. 

“May I join in on the joke? What just happened?” 

“Molly’s twins are always trying to spy on what’s going on in the kitchen and the ear-thing, as you called it, is one of the devices they use. Quite ingenious, if I may say so”, Sirius explained. 

“But I think today the other children also tried to listen, if I heard the footsteps correctly”, Dumbledore added.

“Twins? Other kids? How many are there?” 

“Molly and Arthur have seven altogether, but only four of them are here now – the twins, Fred and George, Ronald and Ginevra. And then there’s Hermione, she’s a friend and also living here for the break”, Dumbledore explained.

“I’d like to meet them, please. I think they could be helpful in learning how to fit in at Hogwarts again. But what do they know about us?” 

“Just the basic story you will tell everyone.” 

“That doesn’t make sense. I mean we’re here to protect one of them, but they can’t know it? I think we should at least tell them we are trained in combat and here to protect Harry from Voldemort.” 

Dumbledore looked at her pensively and then nodded in agreement. “You’re right. They can help you, warn you if there’s anything wrong. We’ll go with the longer version. But just for the Weasleys and Miss Granger.” 

With that their discussion was finished, as well as their tea. 

Dumbledore bade them a good night, returning to Hogwarts to prepare the school for the Fairy Tail mages. Then Sirius led Elyx upstairs to the bedrooms where Molly Weasley was occupied with shooing around teenagers to get them into the right beds and to sleep. When she saw the two approaching she stopped in her tracks and instead called the youngsters together to welcome their newest addition. Then she rushed off to prepare another bed in the girls’ room leaving the introductions to Sirius. 

“This is Elyx, a student from the Tenroujima school for Ancient Magic in Japan. She and her colleagues are going to study in Hogwarts from September on. Elyx, this is Hermione, Ginny, Fred, George and Ron”, he presented each one with a gesture. 

“You got it wrong again, Sirius! I’m George”, complained the first twin. 

Sirius just shrugged and went on. 

“Elyx went ahead of her colleagues because she is part British, so she took on all the organizing.” 

“Cool. But where are your teachers?”, asked Ron. 

“In Japan”, Sirius offered no further explanation.

They had a lively conversation, all getting to know Elyx when suddenly there was a knock on one of the windows. Hermione opened it and in swooped a majestic snowy owl. 

“Hello Hedwig. It’s late. Is Harry okay?”, Hermione greeted the bird. 

Hedwig just held out her leg to show three pieces of parchment, addressed to Hermione, Ron and Sirius. They each took it and after reading it quickly looked at each other alarmed. 

“What’s up?”, George asked.

“There’s been trouble. I’ll go contact Dumbledore. I’m sure he’ll fix everything. No letters in the meantime!”, with that Sirius rushed off and suddenly Mrs. Weasley was with them again.

She shooed all the teenagers into their beds, showing Elyx her bed in a room she would share with Ginny and Hermione for now. After casting a weak sleeping spell on Elyx to help her adjust to the different time Mrs. Weasley left them to change, promising serious trouble if anyone was still up when she would come check on them in half an hour. Elyx wished Sirius good-night and then went into the room to change, because she began to feel tired due to the spell. She took down a note to ask for such spells for her comrades as well and then snuggled up in her bed and immediately fell asleep.

She didn’t notice when Hermione and Ginny slipped out of the room and into the boys’ room half an hour later. 

“Why didn’t you bring her?”, Ron greeted them. 

“She’s asleep. Mom’s spell seems to be really good. What did Harry’s letters say?”

“He’s been attacked. By Dementors. And he’s at risk to be expelled and now he wants to know something”, Ron answered his sister, looking pained not to be able to tell his friend anything.

“Shit”, was all Fred had to say to that and the others just gave gloomy nods.

After a silence George picked up: “So what about that girl, Elyx?”

“Do you believe any of that part British stuff? From what I heard she must know Sirius. But that’s really weird – I mean she’s what? Fifteen, Sixteen? He’s been in Azkaban twelve years. She shouldn’t be able to remember”, Hermione began to muse. 

She hated that they had to spy on the Order, but otherwise they would’ve been left completely in the dark. 

“We’ll have to ask her tomorrow. Did you see her eyes? They’re purple. I’m wondering what the other students from her school will look like”, Ron threw in. 

“And I wonder what kind of magic they have. Ancient magic…”, began Fred. 

“… sounds vague. And she doesn’t know household magic, she was so scared by that tea…”, added George. 

“… And she doesn’t know Extendable Ears…” 

Before Fred could finish that sentence Ginny cut in angrily: “Of course she can’t know of them. You invented them! We wouldn’t know if we weren’t here. Don’t be mean to her. She’s in a different country all alone. Of course she would be easily scared – we would be as well in her situation. We’ll talk to her tomorrow. Good night.” 

With that she took Hermione by the hand and pulled her back into their room. 

\------------------------------------------ 

They were on their way back from a simple job. They had to keep some fowl away from a garden for the past three days so a rare flower could bloom. Natsu had accidentally burnt it. 

Natsu, Gray and Erza were bickering when suddenly a huge monster, easily the height of Cardia Cathedral showed up in front of them. Its glowing red eyes and black flesh were the most terrible things Elyx had ever seen. She began screaming, shouting for her friends to flee. With all she had she tried to fight off the monster, but it almost knocked her out with just a roar. The others were also hit by its force, their small bodies hanging from nearby trees, all of them unconscious. 

In a desperate attempt to save her friends Elyx gathered all her love and magic and set out to use Fairy Law…

\------------------------------------------

Puffing and blowing Elyx sat up straight in her bed. She had trouble getting air and her face felt wet. 

“I’m sorry, but you didn’t wake up when I shook you, so I poured some water on you”, a girl said somewhere to her right. 

Elyx wiped the wetness off her face with her sleeve and looked around, not knowing where she was or who that voice belonged to. Everything was dark, but then the girl whispered “Lumos” and the tip of her wand ignited.

Attentively Elyx looked around at the dark and shabby walls, the thick curtains and finally the bushy-haired girl in front of her bed. Once she realized she wasn’t in any danger all the fear from her nightmare came back to her and she started sobbing uncontrollably. 

Hermione didn’t know what to do at first, but then she simply put her arms around this strange girl and held her until she calmed down a bit. 

“H-how did y-you k-know?”

“You were screaming for help at first and then your blankets, clothes and the curtains came to life.”

“Th-thanks.”

“If you want to talk…”

“I-I don’t know…”

“It’s okay. Do you want me to hold your hand until you sleep again?”

Elyx nodded and Hermione handed her a tissue before pushing her tenderly onto her pillow. Then the young witch pulled over her own bed and lay down before reaching over and holding Elyx’ hand. With her thumb she made calming little circular movements until she heard that Elyx’ breathing became slower, but she didn’t let go in fear of waking her up. Some minutes later Hermione fell asleep as well.

In her bed on the other side of the room Ginny smiled, remembering how her dorm-mates had helped her after her experience in the Chamber of the Secrets. She was still plagued by nightmares sometimes.

\------------------------------------------

The next morning the Weasley kids and Hermione were met with a disappointment. Right after breakfast Mrs. Weasley went out with Elyx and left her other charges with Sirius.

While the youngsters burned with questions, Elyx enjoyed her time at the Diagon Alley. After selling a good part of her materials – most importantly all of the flying fish – she had enough money to last them for at least a year. 

Then she arranged dates at Madam Malkin’s to get herself and her friends outfitted with uniforms, bought school supplies and some books for her own entertainment as well as two owls for the group. Her own owl Arrow waited for her at Hogwarts. When she walked past Quality Quidditch Supplies she couldn’t resist and bought three middle-class brooms, in order to teach the others to fly.

After meeting up with Dumbledore at Florean Fortescue’s and getting the dragon fire for Natsu’s wand core and some water from Hogwarts’ Lake from him, she entered the shop of Mr. Ollivander, followed by Mrs. Weasley who carried the owls. Her shopping was safely stashed away in her new bag. The shop was still as dusty and overflowing with boxes over boxes with wands as she remembered it and the wandmaker still managed to surprise her with his sudden appearance. 

“Mrs. Weasley, I thought all your family was provided for with wands? Who do I have the pleasure to help today?” 

“Hello Mr. Ollivander. I’m not your customer today but this young lady. I just accompany her because she is my guest.” 

“I see and what can I do for you Miss…?” 

“McGonagall. You might remember me? I bought my wand fifteen years ago.” 

“Ah, yes. But aren’t you a bit young?” 

“A spell went wrong.” 

“I see, now you need a new wand. Let’s see. Yours was Alder wood with a Unicorn hair core, 10 inches and surprisingly swishy. I might have something similar.” 

“No, that won’t be necessary. It is still in good shape, you see”, Elyx showed him her wand. 

“Hmm… Swish it for me.”

Elyx waved her wand – but nothing happened. She was devastated when she realized her wand wasn’t the right one for her anymore. 

“Don’t worry, Miss McGonagall. I will find you the perfect one in no time. Or do you want me to make you a completely new one? It isn’t unusual that Unicorn hair loses its affiliation, if its wielder is under the influence of strong magic…”, before he could start looking for a new wand for her, Elyx stopped the old wandmaker and presented to him the wand cores she had collected for her guildmates. 

“Students from a Japanese school, trained in ancient wandless magic, are coming to Britain in about four days. They will study at Hogwarts for some time and therefore need wands. I collected what we deemed fitting cores for them, because their magic is a bit different. I hope you can work with those? These are the highest priority – my wand still works, so I can wait a few days until they are properly equipped.”

The eyes of the wandmaker began to shine once he saw all the materials she brought him: never melting ice, dragon fire, magical iron and other materials he had never worked with before. Eagerly he took up the light pen and examined it carefully. 

“I thought you might use the core of this pen as a wand core? The girl who will use it uses script-based magic.” 

“I see. Then let me guess: An ice-wizard, a wizard using steel, someone working with air and someone with dragon fire. Correct?” 

“Indeed. But you missed our water mage”, she added, pointing out the bottles filled with water from Magnolia river and the lake on the grounds of Hogwarts. 

“As well as this”- she held up a satchel of Stellar dust intended for Lucy’s wand – “This”, holding up the transformation-magic lacrima - “And this”, showing him the PDG. “Professor Dumbledore offered to help you with this contraption, you can owl him anytime.”

“May I ask what these things are?”

“Of course. This is Stellar dust from another realm, a crystal containing transformation magic and this is a pocket dimension generator, short PDG. It is similar to an undetectable extension charm, but more limited. The whole thing needs to be used for the core I think.”

“I see. And if you don’t mind me asking, what kind of wandless magic do you practice?” Elyx was astonished. She hadn’t mentioned anything.

“Your deep understanding for the others magic told me. That and your wand. So?”

“I use fabric magic. I manipulate any kind of fabric, and now I’m working on weaving magic, that would allow me to weave anything, even fire and ice, into a fabric I would then be able to manipulate.”

Mrs. Weasley listened on greatly impressed, memorizing it all to tell the Order about it. 

“I see”, the wandmaker mused. 

“How about I use some fabric you give me, something important to you, and tiny amounts of the elemental cores of your friends, so you can use that weaving magic without putting your wand at risk.”

“That would be possible? Then yes, please. But I think I’ll also need a second wand, because I can draw my magic from two sources – one the classical British way and the other using the Ancient Magic.” 

“I’ve got something in mind, but it will also take a bit of time. I’ll deliver it with the other wands.”

Then she handed Mr. Ollivander the measurements of the Hogwarts team and described their personalities to him before she used her magic to pull a piece of fabric away from her shirt and handed it to Mr. Ollivander. Happily, he collected everything and set off to work without another word of greeting. 

Elyx and Mrs. Weasley made their way back to the Leaky Cauldron from where the elder witch apparated them to Grimmauld Place. They put away the shopping and then Elyx tried to help with preparing a light lunch, but was sent upstairs. 

As soon as Elyx entered the room the girls assailed her with questions: 

“What is Ancient Magic?” 

“Can you show us your magic?” 

“How come you speak English so well?” 

“Did you know anyone in Britain in advance?”

And they would have gone on for a lot longer, if Elyx hadn’t moved into a stance and controlled the blankets to wrap around the other girls.

“Amazing! So that is Ancient Magic?”, Ginny asked with big eyes while Hermione tried to struggle out of the fabrics embrace. 

“Yeah. It takes on many different forms, but I work with fabric”, with that Elyx let the blankets fall back onto the beds and changed their colours until a Hogwarts crest was on each. 

Hermione went over to her bed and swished her wand in an attempt to dissolve what she thought was an illusion, when she felt her shirt move. Frozen in shock she watched her simple t-shirt transform into a full ball-gown with lace all over the bodice. 

“H-how did you do that! Reverse it immediately!”, Hermione began to shriek, but just at that moment the boys burst into the room, knocking Elyx over with the door.

Upon seeing Hermione standing there in the middle of the room wearing a ball-gown even more beautiful than the one she wore to the Yule Ball the boys stopped and stared. But suddenly the gown became shorter and shorter, the lace vanished and Hermione stood there wearing her shirt and jeans again. Collectively the boys’ chins hit the floor. 

Seeing her brothers so completely overwhelmed sent Ginny into a bout of the giggles that made her topple over and fall off the bed she sat on. Elyx and Hermione couldn’t contain themselves either and burst out laughing, Hermione’s anger about the prank completely wiped away by the mirth shared with her new roommate. 

“Bloody hell, women! What was that?!”, Ron shouted to be heard over the laughter. 

“Ancient Magic. Mine to be exact”, Elyx answered from behind the door, being the first to catch her breath. 

“I’d say it was a magnificent prank”, George interjected grinning.

“Indeed. I think you’ll be fun to be around”, Fred added.

Elyx showed off some more of her magic and explained the basic principles of Fiorean magic to the Hogwarts students, until Mrs. Weasley called them down to the kitchen for lunch. Sirius already waited for them in the same seat as the evening before.

Without a second thought Elyx sat down beside him, searching the comfort of a familiar face. Although she had a good first impression of the kids, they still were strangers.

“So, what did you do, Lyxie?”, Sirius asked.

“Lyxie? So you do know each other!”, Ginny exclaimed.

“That’s none of your business young lady”, Mrs. Weasley scolded.

“No, I think it is, at least a bit, Mrs. Weasley”, Elyx interjected. “I’m sleeping in the same room as them and they have the right to know a few things about me. We know each other very well because I always played with Sirius and his friends when I was a child.”

“You mean when you were a toddler, don’t you?”, Mrs. Weasley asked, a suggestive tinge to her voice. 

“What? No! When I was a child. Until I was eleven”, Elyx corrected her, angry about the patronizing ways of the Weasley matriarch. 

Sirius put a hand on her arm to calm her down. “Elyx. I was in Azkaban for twelve years. I just got out two years ago.”

“Shit”, was all Elyx could say, realizing her slip-up. 

“I think they can keep the secret. They can help you fit in. Tell them”, Sirius encouraged her to take advantage of her slip-up.

“You sure?”, Elyx fell back into the slang she sometimes used with Natsu.

“Absolutely.”

Elyx sighed, then straightened her back and looked at the youngsters. “I’m twenty-five, almost twenty-six years old.”

Gasps erupted around the table, no one expecting a revelation like this. 

“B-but how?”, Ginny was the first to find her voice again.

“It was an accident. My friends, who are younger than me, were attacked and I protected them using a spell I had only read about. I succeeded, they were okay, but I got trapped in the effing body of a seventeen year-old, ‘cuz I used up too much energy.”

Even after hearing only the short version the young witches and wizards were shocked. They all looked at her compassionately, making Elyx curse her thoughtlessness. 

Hermione was the first to reach out: “Don’t worry, we’ll help you fit in. No one else will find out.”

Elyx was happy to be accepted despite her curse and hugged her tightly, expressing her thankfulness through that embrace. Hermione was caught completely off-guard by this demonstration of affection of someone she would still call a stranger.

After everyone had promised their support Sirius coughed: “Well, I for one am starving. Do you mind to wait with any more revelations and soppy stuff until after we’ve eaten?”

Everyone cracked up laughing and started their meal in a much lighter mood than before. 

\-----------------------------------------

When they were almost finished with the sandwiches and salads Mrs. Weasley had prepared, something Sirius had said before suddenly registered with Elyx. 

“Padfoot, why the hell were you in Azkaban? I thought uncle Albus said Voldemort and his Death Eaters fell shortly after I left?”

Immediately Sirius went rigid and the room fell silent. Elyx immediately cursed herself for asking, when she saw the pain flash across Sirius’ face. But just when she wanted to tell him to forget her question, he let out a sigh and began to explain to her how he was wrongly convicted for the murder of Peter Pettigrew and some Muggles and how everyone thought he had betrayed the Potters. He just gave the crudest outline of his time in Azkaban, before relaying the events that led to his relative freedom two years ago.

“But if Wormtail did it all, why didn’t you tell anyone? It’s so wrong you’re being treated like a fugitive now. And did you even get a proper hearing?”, Elyx got so angry about the injustice her friend faced, that her magic lashed out, fabric tentacles developing from every piece of fabric in the room.

“Elyx! Stop it!”, the strained cry from Ginny, fighting off a tentacle with a butter knife, alerted Elyx to the situation.

“Shit! Shit! Shit! I didn’t mean to do that. Sorry!”, Elyx shouted back, scared of hurting her new friends, but unable to control her magic. 

Sirius sensed her distress and put his hand on her shoulder. “Calm down, Lyxie. Everything will be okay. Close your eyes and focus on my voice. Breathe slowly.” 

By talking to her and rubbing her back he managed to calm her down and immediately the tentacles retracted until they vanished completely, leaving the room in calm disarray, a sobbing Elyx leaning into Sirius. 

Mrs. Weasley gestured for her children and Hermione to give them some privacy and followed them upstairs, intent on cleaning another room this afternoon to make the house more habitable. 

A few minutes after they had left Elyx dried her tears with a colourful handkerchief and began to apologize for crying.

“Don’t. It’s okay. No one got hurt. Is that your magic?”, Sirius asked, trying to distract her.

“Yes. I can control any fabric in my vicinity. Even my enemies’ clothes.”

“Fascinating. And you use it without a wand? That’s awesome!”  
“Most of the time it is, but sometimes it’s terrible. It’s so closely tied to my emotions, and because of my curse it’s harder to control. That makes me extremely dangerous if I get upset”, Elyx was at the brink of tearing up again, when she thought of the fear in everyone’s eyes and the havoc she wreaked when she let loose the last time in Fiore.

“Don’t worry. As long as you stay with the Order or at Hogwarts you’ll be safe”, Sirius comforted her.

“I worry less about myself than about what can happen to those around me…”, she admitted. 

“I know. You always were a true Gryffindor. But still. Dumbledore, the professors and us from the Order can protect everyone. And your friends will come soon too. Don’t you think they will help as well?”

“That’s true. Thanks for reminding me. Being here with you and uncle Albus, talking English all the time makes it so surreal to think of them with me.”

They spent the rest of the afternoon drinking tea in the kitchen and catching up on the past fifteen years, dodging Mrs. Weasley and her cleaning brigade as much as possible.


	4. The Order of the Phoenix

After Elyx and Sirius had fled the kitchen when Mrs. Weasley came down to prepare dinner, Sirius showed her a bit more of the house, revealing that it was his. 

“Seriously? I thought they disowned you?”, Elyx wondered while climbing the stairs to his room.

“I thought so too, but it seems my father never took the legal steps, so now it’s mine”, her host shrugged while pushing open the door to his room. 

It struck Elyx as weird that the bed had a thin coating of dust until she saw a heap of blankets on the floor. 

“I can’t sleep in a bed anymore. Too soft after the years in Azkaban, but the blankets are quite nice”, Sirius, noticing what had drawn her attention, explained in a monotone voice while sitting down in his chair.

“It took me quite some time to get used to rooms too, after my time on Tenroujima”, Elyx revealed. “Have you tried a futon?”

“What’s that?”

“A thin mattress filled with cotton that’s placed directly on the floor. I brought some in case we need to be flexible with the sleeping arrangements. But as long as I have one, I can recreate new ones with my magic”, Elyx explained. 

“It’s worth a try. Where do you have it?”, he queried, allowing himself just the smallest sliver of hope to be able to sleep like a normal person again.

“I’ve got mine here in my bag. I could create one off it for you. Or we go downstairs and you choose one from my trunk.”

“Let me look at yours first, please.” 

Elyx dug into the satchel she had gotten from Dumbledore and after some pulling and cursing a simple white futon, complete with kake-buton and a makura filled with buckwheat lay beside Sirius’ bed. Sceptically Sirius knelt beside it and felt the soft fabric of the duvet.

“I can make it in any colour or texture you’d like. I could even fashion one out of your blankets”, Elyx offered in a soft voice, trying not to surprise her friend.

“Nah, I hate those. But everything of better quality has been contaminated by various creatures. Could you make one just like yours, but in the Gryffindor colours?”

“Sure! Nothing about a bit house pride, eh?”, Elyx winked at him and set to work.  
Creating a whole futon took a lot of concentration and energy out of her, but she didn’t mind, as long as she could stop Padfoot from sleeping on the floor like a dog. First she clapped her hands together and pulled them apart, thereby expanding her shiki-buton, the mattress, to twice its size, before having it separate in the middle and sew itself shut by making a wrenching motion. Then she did the same with the kake-buton, the duvet. But before she duplicated the makura, the pillow, she stopped to ask: “Do you want a hard pillow like mine, or would you prefer a soft one?”

“I doubt I’ll be able to sleep on a soft pillow again”, came the disheartened reply.

Immediately she went on to duplicate the pillow. After taking a deep breath she changed her stance, moved her hands in wide strokes, while visualizing the futon in the red and gold she remembered so well. She didn’t hear the gasp that escaped Sirius when suddenly the lion crest appeared on the kake-buton, surrounded by red and gold stripes, the shiki-buton turned gold and the makura the brilliant Gryffindor red. Then she muttered a word in her mother tongue, before opening her eyes to see the lion roar.

“Th-this is a-absolutely amazing! It’s perfect!”, Sirius exclaimed letting himself sink back down onto his knees. Just then the lion moved its paws as if to strike its prey and Sirius realized what she had done with that final word.

“You made it move? That’s so crazy! I love it!”, and with that he let himself fall onto his new futon, revelling in its softness. 

“Well actually I made it a protector. It will move, yes, but if someone tries to harm you in your sleep it will kind of materialize to defend you. That only lasts about ninety days but I thought it was helpful. Especially after you mentioned stuff breeding in the good bedding”, Elyx cringed at the thought.

This explanation left Sirius speechless. After seeing her tentacles lash out he knew she was strong, but making a drawn lion materialize without being near it was even too crazy for one of the creators of the Marauders Map. He sat up and watched her roll up her futon and put it back into her bag, wondering about the woman the little girl he once knew had become. 

She seemed so much like the innocent girl from fifteen years ago and she looked so much younger than she should have, but then there were those moments when she seemed to be more of a seasoned warrior fitting right in with the Order and not just a schoolgirl. 

“What is Tenroujima? Dumbledore mentioned it when he gave me your cover story, but it isn’t a school, is it?”, he asked.

“No, well, it was educational for me, but actually it is our guilds holy island. When my magic and emotions were at their craziest after the accident the master sent me there for three months”, Elyx settled down on the floor to be on eye-level with him.

“You mean like an exile?”

“It would have become an exile, if it wasn’t for our first master. She helped me deal with it all, learn to live with it. She made the same mistake when she was even younger and so her spirit could help me.”

“Her spirit?”

“Yes. She died ages ago but her spirit still lives on Tenroujima – at least most of the time. Sometimes she comes to visit the guild.”

“So like a ghost?”

“Yeah, but not bound to a place and she still got some of her magic.”

“Wow. And you had no shelter on that island?”

“I had some ruins and caves, but after a week or so I learned that I could deal better with nightmares if I slept under the stars. I slept in the garden of the guild’s dorm for almost a year until I got used to having a roof above my head at night again. I started with sleeping in a tent”, she admitted, nodding to the futon, her eyes overshadowed by the memory.

The similarity of their pain, even though their experiences had been so vastly different, hurt Sirius even more than her presumed loss all those years ago. He simply reached out and wrapped his old friend in a tight embrace, offering all the comfort he could give. They both would have liked to stay like this forever, having finally found someone who could truly understand them, but it was not meant to last. 

When suddenly the portrait of the old witch – Elyx knew now that it was Sirius’s mother – began to curse and shriek, Elyx jumped up ready to fight, while Sirius just cursed and hurried down to wrangle with the curtains again. 

Downstairs they were met with three visitors, one of them – a young woman with strikingly blue hair – picking up the umbrella stand she had knocked over. Before Sirius could reach the curtains, which another wizard was already trying to pull back over the picture, Elyx reached out with her magic and pulled them shut, forcing the two panes of fabric to fuse. Immediately the shouting of obscenities stopped. 

“Thanks, Elyx. I hope that’ll do for a while”, Sirius observed her work, drawing everyone’s attention to her. 

“E-Elyx? Our Elyx is back? Sirius! Why didn’t you tell me!”, the wizard who had fought with the picture scolded while rushing across the hallway to get a better look at the girl. 

Sirius rubbed the back of his neck. “Sorry Remus. She just arrived last night without any warning. I forgot.”

Elyx looked down at the newcomer from her spot on the stairs. His brown hair had visibly greyed and he looked even more rugged than in his Hogwarts days but she recognized his eyes immediately. “Moony! It’s good to see you! I missed you all so much!” And with that she flew down the stairs and hugged him just like Sirius the day before.

Remus Lupin couldn’t keep the tears from falling. After fifteen years, he finally saw the girl again they had believed to be dead. “Remus… You’re crushing me…”, a muffled giggle came from Elyx. 

Immediately Remus loosened his embrace a bit, but was not yet willing to completely let go of her. Having one of the “old gang” back seemed like a miracle to him, considering the loss of James and Lily as well as Peter’s betrayal. After drying his tears, he scrutinized her, noticing the difference in her age and appearance, but stopped himself from commenting because of the others present. 

“I’m glad you’re alive.”

“What do you mean alive? Didn’t uncle Albus tell you guys anything?”

“No. Not a single word. What should he have told us?” 

“Hmm… True. It was a weird story and I didn’t want you to try and follow me… Sorry I made you think I was dead”, Elyx tried to smile the pain away and Sirius took the hint to start with the introductions. 

“Elyx, this is the Order of the Phoenix – Order of the Phoenix, this is Elyx Dreyar, a mage from another world here to help us protect Harry.”

“Thanks Sirius, always offering so much detail”, Remus smiled and set out to properly introduce everyone.

“This is Alastor Moody”, he pointed out an aged wizard with many scars and a magical eye. Elyx could feel the magic seeping from the object. 

“Cool eye”, she tried to compliment him. 

“Bah. Useful. Nothing fancy. And seriously nothing to gush about, girl”, he grumbled, his cheeks turning a slight pink.

“Wotcher, Elyx! I’m Tonks. Just Tonks”, the blue-haired woman who had knocked over the umbrella stand before introduced herself. “I like your style. Nice colour.” And immediately her hair began to turn into an extreme version of Elyx’ sweater’s purple. 

“She’s a Metamorphmagus. She can change her appearance at will”, Remus added

“Neat. So you do wandless magic too?”

“What do you mean ‘too’? Don’t you use a wand?”, Tonks seemed fascinated.

“Nah. Not necessary. I mean I can use one, but normally I don’t. Too much hassle.” And with that she waved her hand over her sweater and turned it to the Gryffindor colours, all the while controlling a tentacle to sneak up on the distracted Tonks and touch her. A high-pitched shriek almost woke the portrait again, but the curtains kept it under control.

“Good work, lassie. Distraction and Stealth. Good work”, Moody complimented her. 

“Thanks. Is that the whole Order? I would have guessed you to be more.”

“No. But the others will arrive later for the meeting. Everyone arriving at once would draw too much suspicion”, Sirius explained.

“Of course. It’s good we’re going to have a meeting today. I still have some questions…”, Elyx began to trail off thinking about all she needed to know. 

“You won’t be there, child”, Moody scolded, pulling her away from her thoughts. 

“Why of course I will. And don’t call me a child. If I guess correctly I’m older than Tonks”, the Fairy Tail mage felt anger boil up, but managed to subdue it by going through the recipe for Erza’s beloved strawberry cake.

This revelation left Tonks staring at Elyx open-mouthed and Moody scanning her with his magical eye. “I don’t see any disguises”, he proclaimed after checking her over.

“Because there aren’t any. I had a spell go wrong and that stopped my ageing. I’m twenty-five.”

“Shit! You’re really older than me!”, Tonks exclaimed and then lunged at Elyx to take a closer look. Out of reflex Elyx stepped out of her way and with a well-practiced grip and pull sent Tonks flying down the hall. 

Immediately she realized her mistake and made the carpet cushion Tonks’ fall. “I’m so sorry! It was on instinct. I’m always so jumpy around strangers. Are you all right?”

“That was amazing. I don’t think even Mad-Eye has such reflexes. And you’re crazy strong!”, Tonks crowed from within the inflated carpet. “Can you teach me some of your tricks?”

“Those are no tricks. Training and experience, I would say”, Moody offered.

Elyx was saved from commenting on that when Molly Weasley came up into the hallway to check on everyone. 

“Alastor, Remus, Tonks! How good to see you. Remus, you really should eat more. Come, I have some sandwiches you can eat while we wait for the rest.” She grabbed Remus’ hand and pulled him after her down to the kitchen. The others – all used to her fear that anyone could starve on her watch – following them downstairs. 

Elyx and Sirius made up the rear of their group, walking in companionable silence when Elyx noticed a weird tug of magic on her consciousness. 

“Mr. Moody, I would be grateful if you stopped staring at me”, she stated. 

Bewildered the old wizard stopped and turned to face her. “How did you know?”

“I felt its magic.”

“I see. I apologize for making you feel uncomfortable, but even though Lupin and Black seem to know you, you’re a stranger to me. And we’re in a war. Constant Vigilance!”

“Yeah… But while going down the stairs it’s a bit improper to look up at a girl wearing a skirt. Wouldn’t you agree?”, Elyx teased, knowing fully well that he had studied her face.

“I… I would never...! What do you think?!”, Moody sputtered, turning an intense shade of red.

“I know you looked at my face. I could feel as much. But please don’t do it through your head. That’s creepy.”

Immediately the old Auror turned around and hurried the last steps down to the kitchen. At the food of the stairs he turned around and grumbled: “You can call me Mad-Eye”, before he took is usual seat and conjured a glass of whisky he could grumble into.

Elyx, Sirius and Remus huddled together to get Remus up to speed while Tonks annoyed Mrs. Weasley by trying to help her. After a couple of minutes the flames in the fireplace turned green and spat out a bunch of wizards and witches. “The Hogwarts professors”, Remus pointed out. When the last witch stepped out of the flames Elyx gave off a yelp and almost fell over her own feet hurrying to get to her.  
When she pounced on and hugged her while sobbing the elegant black-haired witch stiffened, completely taken aback by being assaulted in such a way. But when the word “Mum” sounded through the sobs one could watch her fall apart. Tears filled her eyes and she started crying unashamedly, while hugging the girl in her arms, running her hand through her golden hair and murmuring to her like to a toddler. 

Everyone went silent, trying not to look at them but unable to pull their eyes away. Even Mad-Eye kept both his eyes trained on them. 

“Mum, I think everyone’s looking at us”, Elyx whispered after a bit, feeling the magic of Mad-Eye. 

“Aye. Don’t mind them, mo chridhe. I’ve got you back”, Minerva McGonagall replied, but loosened her embrace to take a look at her adopted daughter for a few moments before pulling her back into her. “I thought I’d never see you again”, she muttered while the tears began falling again. 

Sirius finally got up and led them upstairs into the parlour so they could talk in private. Seeing his strict teacher in tears pulled at his heartstrings and it took a lot out of him not to cry as well. Minerva never let go of Elyx, as if she was afraid the girl would vanish immediately.

When the door closed behind them they remained silent for a little while, both overwhelmed by their feelings. Then Elyx pulled out her wand and tried to set up anti-listening wards on the door, remembering the “creepy ear-thingy”, but she was so shaken that Minerva took over. 

“I didn’t know you still had it”, the older witch stated when she was done, gesturing towards Elyx wand. 

“Of course I have it. I would never have given it away.”

“But you shouldn’t need it anymore…”

“That’s true and false at the same time. I don’t need it for battle and some everyday magic, but there are a lot of things I can’t do without it. But this wand doesn’t fit me anymore, Mr. Ollivander said.”

“Really? Why? Because of your new magic?”

“That and also because of my curse…”, Elyx added in a small voice. As she had expected her mother gasped. 

“A curse? What happened?”

Elyx went on to explain it again, feeling like a small child confessing to her mother that she had done something incredibly stupid. But Minerva just listened and sometimes asked for more details. All the while she held on to her daughters hand. 

“How are you, Mum? How were the past fifteen years?”

“Boring, to say the least. It’s just not the same without having to run after you.” The admission made Elyx giggle. 

“Oh Mum. I missed you too. But I’m happy you missed my puberty. You would have thrown me out of the cottage.”

“I would never do such a thing”, Minerva countered passionately, while Elyx suddenly remembered something and her smile faltered. 

“I miss it. I so dearly wanted to go home, but uncle Albus just dropped me off here without a second thought.”

“Mo chridhe. Don’t be sad. I don’t know why he did it, but I’m sure Dumbledore just has the best in mind.”

“The best indeed. But for whom?” 

The question took Minerva by surprise. Her daughter’s sentiment so closely mirrored her feelings from the evening when they left the boy who lived on that doorstep in Surrey. Or the first day she saw him again, a scraggly, underfed boy, so obviously clueless to his heritage and powers. She forbade herself from thinking about the pain when Dumbledore took away her own child without much of a good-bye, he just sent her away with someone supposed to be family, as if she wasn’t family at all. And then something in her cracked and she realized how wrong it all was, how wrong it felt. Why would she ever have agreed to everything when it felt so wrong?

“I need a Flushing Drought, Elyx. I think something is terribly wrong.”

“What? Mum, is it about uncle Albus?” A solemn nod was answer enough. “I guess I need one too then.” 

“Only after I took it. I want to be able to help you, if it’s too bad.”

Without waiting for affirmation, she strode over to the door. But the carpet lifted off the ground and stretched to block her from the door. “Wait! We need to have a plan. The Order are loyal to him. If we want to find out what’s going on we need to forgo it.” 

“Indeed. My smart daughter. I’m proud of you. We can’t get the Drought from Severus. Who knows what he gives us?”

“I think Sirius mentioned a potions lab in the house. I could brew it, I learned it two years ago, for a mission. But… I think I still have some left. It should be in my trunk.”

“Accio Elyx’ trunk.” A few moments later the trunk pushed itself through the gap underneath the door. Elyx pulled it open and rummaged around a bit until she found her potions collection, some vials rolled into a leather cover. 

“I’ve still got one and a half vials. It’s not enough for both of us.”

“And that’s why I’m the teacher. It’s enough. It gets stronger with age, so we’ll each need only three quarters of a vial for it to work. Give them to me, I’ll measure them.”

Once she was done Minerva McGonagall settled on one of the sofas and took her dose after making her daughter promise to wait until she was back. Her eyes fluttered while every outside influence on her consciousness was flushed out of her system. She woke with a gasp and tears in her eyes. But this time they were tears of rage. “A dhiobhail, Dumbledore! Such audacity!“

„What is it, Mum?“

But Minerva was still too upset to talk, so Elyx just grabbed the second vial and chugged it. Immediately she was knocked out and suddenly she remembered. 

She saw herself standing in Dumbledore’s office and talk to the old wizard and her uncle Makarov. She argued that she wanted to say good-bye to everyone, but Dumbledore wouldn’t have it. He pushed her to leave, in a hurry to get her to Fiore. When she challenged him about his insistence he slipped. He got angry and told her to go there, because “you’re a threat to Minerva’s loyalty. And who knows? Maybe some extra power will come in handy one day.” After this slip-up he covered his mouth. Elyx was about to leave the office when a spell hit her in the back. He obliviated her and put her under a compulsion to go because she missed her home-world. He even obliviated Makarov of their whole fight. And then he just sent them off. 

Elyx came to it, screaming blue murder. But her mother was there, hugging her, calming her. When she could think clearly again, she settled into business-mode, as her guild mates called it. She locked down her emotions to a minimum and let them fuel a plan for revenge. Dishing out revenge was her specialty. She was famous for her grudges and the consequences her victims had to suffer. 

“We need to stop his meddling. What did he want from you that made him send me away?”

“He needed a good little robot. He forced me to leave a boy, Harry, with his muggle relatives although I had a very bad feeling about it. He used compulsions and obliviations several times to keep me from helping the child. I think that’s why he needed you gone, so I would be hurt and less prone to motherly feelings. I hate him. I could go scratch his eyes out. I should do just that!” But her daughter held her back again. 

“If there is one good thing that came from my time in Fiore it’s a knack for revenge. Mavis taught me well even though she never thought I would use her tactics for stuff like that. That boy, is he the same I – we – will be guarding?”

“Harry Potter. I don’t know about that yet, but I think he is.”

“Harry Potter? Potter as in James Potters son?”

“Yes. Didn’t he tell you his last name? Or his story?”

“His story, yes. But never the full name or his parents’ names. So James and Lily are gone? Because Pete betrayed them?” The sad look in her mother’s eyes was all the confirmation she needed. “That poor boy. He was just due when I was sent away. He can’t even remember them, can he?”

“Sadly no. I heard Hagrid mention he got him a photo album for his first Christmas at Hogwarts, but I’m afraid that’s all he’s got of them.

“How awful! I bet Sirius, Remus and I can share some memories of them if we find a pensieve. Or at least tell him about them. I’ll talk to them when the rest of the Order leaves. Remus already mentioned he wanted to stay with us for the night to catch up… But we should focus on our revenge first. For now it would be better to pretend nothing changed until we’re all set.”

\-------------------------------

They worked on their plan until Mrs. Weasley knocked on the door to call them downstairs to the meeting. Minerva erased the anti-eavesdropping-wards and they hurried down to the kitchen where the whole Order was gathered around the table with some leaning against or sitting on the cupboards all around. At the head Dumbledore sat waiting, two seats to his right left open for them. Once they took their seats – Elyx noticed with displeasure that Sirius and Remus sat at the far end of the table – the old wizard rose and everyone fell silent.

“Good evening everyone! I’m glad to see you’re all well and were able to come on such short notice. Tonight’s meeting was made necessary by an attack on our poor Harry, which makes it necessary to move him here earlier than planned in order to keep him safe.

But first introductions are in order. Only a few of you have already met our guest and newest ally: Elyx Dreyar. She will lead a team of young mages especially trained in combat. They will stay at Hogwarts, disguised as exchange students, to offer additional protection to Harry and all the other students. Elyx, do you want to say something in greeting?”

Elyx nodded and rose: “Indeed, uncle Albus. I hope you all will help us fit in here. I’ll be doing my best to help my teammates fit in, but it would be of great help if especially the Hogwarts professors would point out anything they notice. My comrades are not used to using wands at all, so maybe someone would be willing to sacrifice a few hours before term starts to help me train them up?”

Everyone started murmuring, discussing the new information. Mad-Eye, Remus and Sirius were the first to offer their help. They were soon joined by Tonks, a black Auror introducing himself as Kingsley Shacklebolt as well as Hogwarts’ charms professor Filius Flitwick. 

“Doesn’t anybody care that we’re having children fight our war now?!”, a sudden shriek from Molly Weasley broke through the discussions going on around the table. “It’s bad enough poor little Harry has been pulled into this mess already. Now you want to get even more children to fight, children from another country even? Don’t tell me you expect my babies to fight as well, Albus?!” Before Dumbledore could even reply to that a discussion had broken out around the table, the noise becoming more and more unbearable. 

Soon Elyx was fed up, especially with Dumbledore sitting there smiling benevolently, but never even reaching for his wand to calm them down. She silently got up and set out to leave when she was pulled back by a hand around her wrist. “Don’t you think you could stop them?”, Dumbledore asked her.

“I could. But you wouldn’t want me to right now. And by the way I’m just a child, didn’t you hear?”, Elyx spat out, her ears ringing and her anger flaring at the continued babying of Mrs. Weasley.

Dumbledore looked at her dumbfounded, not used to rejection, but when he noticed her clothes whipping around he clued in on her emotions and the danger lurking – Molly had reported her previous outbreaks to him already. So instead of pushing her further he got up and waited until everyone calmed down. 

“I can see where you are coming from, dear Molly. Of course I don’t want to endanger children. But I need to reinforce the defences of Hogwarts and I can’t just have members of our Order patrolling the school. If Elyx were willing to give us a demonstration at the end of our meeting I am sure you will understand, why I think she and her friends are the right choice for this job.

But for now we should focus on how to get Harry out of his relatives’ house without angering them too much. Any ideas?”

Immediately the wizards and witches present began discussing different ways of busting him out, from a staged break-in over putting the Muggles to sleep and some other crazy ideas. Finally Tonks spoke up, proposing to send them a faked invitation to an awards ceremony for the prettiest garden to get them out of the house and to have Harry picked up by a group of Order members. After Moody concurred with her plan the Order turned to the nitty-gritty details which left Elyx zoning out soon, as she couldn’t go anyway, because it would be the same day as her pick-up-trip for her nakama. Later Remus filled her in that Tonks, Moody, Shacklebolt and himself plus Elphias Doge, Dedalus Diggle, Emmeline Vance, Sturgis Podmore and Hestia Jones were chosen from the numerous volunteers to go pick Harry up. 

After all was set, the necessary letters sent out and some reports concerning different aspects of Order business given Dumbledore rose again. “Now that we’re done with the dry business we can turn to something promising to be more entertaining. Elyx, would you please do the honours and show us what you can do?”

The young mage rose and immediately tentacles of fabric whipped out of her clothes and lifted some Order members out of their seats before bringing them down in different seats again. She went on to demonstrate some of her transformations like putting a grumbly, greasy-haired professor into a stunning wedding dress and changing Tonks clothes to fit her purple hair better. 

But some were still doubtful, believing her magic to be “nice tricks” but feared it would be useless in combat. 

“Then someone fight me. I’ll prove to you how useful my magic is”, Elyx challenged, only to be taken on immediately by Mad-Eye, who was burning to see what else she could do. 

Before they could even fall into fighting stance, Sirius stepped between them: “Could you please take it to the ballroom? There are less breakables.” Everyone agreed and they moved upstairs, with Molly Weasley nagging them again.

“Having her fight Moody is unfair on the girl. He’s our best!”, she argued. 

“And that’s why I’m the best to see what she can do”, Mad-Eye replied, effectively putting an end to her complaints. He gave Elyx a friendly wink, when he noticed how pissed the girl was with the matron. 

Elyx made sure no one noticed when the children slipped into the room with the order – she wanted them to know that they were safe. 

The Order and the concealed children lined up on three sides of the ballroom, leaving the windows and the centre of the room open. On a sign from Dumbledore Elyx and Mad-Eye began circling each other, his magic eye darting around while he kept his natural one trained on her. She seemed to be relaxed, mirroring his movements around the room, but at a laid-back pace. 

Suddenly it seemed like he had seen an opening and immediately he let loose a stunner. But a jump and a whirl of fabric later Elyx stood relaxed and unscathed behind him. He whipped around, another jet of red light burst forth from his wand, but this time it was rendered useless by a thick wall of curtains. It appeared that he had expected something like that, as he apparated behind her right when the wall came up and let another stunner fly the moment he appeared. 

Again he was outsmarted, when Elyx used her own clothes to propel her up and out of the way. When she came down she switched to a more aggressive style, using her fabric tentacles to go after Moody from different angles. Although Moody used all his experience the onslaught from all sides soon had him cornered and a well-placed Expelliarmus left Elyx as the clear winner.

Everyone stared with their mouths wide open. No one had even dreamed of Moody to lose in a sparring battle. Elyx just dropped her magical hold on the fabric in the room and handed Moody his wand back with a smile. “That was a great fight. I bet I would have lost if I didn’t feel your magical eye so well.”

This admission made Shacklebolt curious and he asked Elyx whether she would accept another challenge. As Tonks challenged her at the same moment they settled on a two-on-one fight. To keep the onlookers save they agreed on using tickling hexes, so no one would get knocked out again like Elphias Doge who had been hit with a stray stunner and was still a bit out of sorts. 

When presented with two opponents Elyx decided to go into offense right off the bat, but Tonks and Shacklebolt worked really well together, blocking and attacking in tandem. Elyx seemed in a real pinch when not even distraction and sneak attacks worked to get those two. When a spell missed her just by a hair’s breath she decided to play dirty, called up a wall around herself while calling forth the magic circles needed to wrap up Tonks and Shacklebolt in their own clothes. 

But when she began to apologize for playing dirty a tickling hex hit her right in the chest and she toppled over giggling. It was decided this fight was a draw as neither of them could fight anymore. Soon after the Order left in small groups as they had arrived. Only Remus and Minerva stayed behind to spend some more time with Elyx.

When he left Mad-Eye made it a point to come over to her to say good-bye and congratulate her again on her victory. A lot of people were quite impressed by this, as they had never seen him trust someone so readily – some of them were on his suspicious-list to this day. 

With some hot chocolate and a batch of cookies Elyx’ had whipped up quickly Remus, Sirius, Minerva and Elyx set themselves up in the second floor library and spent the rest of the night chatting about everything that came to their minds, including their plan of gathering some memories of Lily and James to show them to Harry in the Blacks’ pensieve.


	5. Arrival from another world

The next two days were spent in a flurry of activity. Instead of catching up with her mother, Remus and Sirius, Elyx was roped into helping Mrs. Weasley cleaning the house from top to bottom. Every day after breakfast Elyx was sent to another room where she would use both her magics to clean the room and fight off pests on her own. Meanwhile the children were sent out in teams. 

After lunch, she would be sent to another room and the fight against years of neglect and decay would start anew. She noticed of course that Mrs. Weasley kept her away from the other children, always popping up whenever she neared one of them. It seemed the matron was afraid of her since she had seen her fight.

At lunch of the second day they took stock of how far they had gotten. “We’ve done all the bedrooms we’ll need once Elyx’ friends arrive. And the libraries. That leaves us another twenty rooms, including the potions laboratory and the attic. Not bad. I think we will be done in a few days”, Mrs. Weasley summed up happily.

“A few days?! Blimey, we managed four rooms a day at most and we were focusing on those with the least buggers!”, Ron burst out.

“How do you think you’re talking to your mother?! Of course we will be done in a few days. Harry and Elyx’ friends will help us…”

“No, they won’t. Harry has been attacked, give the boy some time to feel save before you make him fight pests. And my nakama and I won’t have any time to help you, because I’ll need to train them for Hogwarts”, Elyx interrupted, leaving Molly stunned. 

“B-but… Dumbledore said you should!”, she argued.

“I don’t care what he said. We’re hired to protect Harry and that’s what I’ll do – even if it means protecting the boy from you as well. They will arrive in a few hours and from then on, I’ll be in charge of this operation, as the Order already proved itself to be unable to protect Harry on several occasions. I would have wanted to go pick him up myself, but I have to stay back to brief my team. I’m just glad I can trust Remus, Mad-Eye, Shak and Tonks with the boy”, Elyx sat there seething. 

The children looked dumbfounded. No one had ever dared to speak like that to Mrs. Weasley, her temper putting a stop to any rebellion. And speaking up against Dumbledore’s orders to boot. Thinking of her fights two days ago made all of them shudder. Who had Dumbledore set them up with?

Suddenly all hell broke loose. Molly began screeching like mad at the girl before her, accusing her of treason against the Order and other offenses, throwing hexes and china in equal measure. Elyx pulled up a fabric shield that also protected the children and tried to disarm the hysterical witch with her fabric. A “Petrificus totalus!”, shouted by Hermione finally ended the altercation, leaving Mrs. Weasley propped up against the cupboards behind her like a plank of wood. The young bushy-haired witch looked down at her hand and dropped the wand as if it had bitten her, shocked that she had attacked the Weasley matriarch. But a look at the relieved faces of the red-headed children made her feel better.

“Thank you, Hermione”, Elyx muttered while patting her on the back in passing, to go check on Mrs. Weasley. The older woman was obviously straining to fight against the body-bind. Elyx let her magic reach out to her. Something felt wrong about Mrs. Weasleys rage. She wrapped some fabric restraints around her and turned to the children. “Fred, George, please apparate to Sirius and my mum, she should be at her cottage. I think something is terribly wrong. I want them to help your mother. Don’t tell Dumbledore.” 

The twins nodded and turned in place, returning with Sirius and Minerva after a few minutes. In the meantime, Elyx talked to the other children to confirm her suspicion and prepared some tea to calm them all down. When the adults arrived Elyx and the children relayed the happenings to them. Then Sirius conjured a stretcher and levitated Molly onto it and upstairs to the infirmary. Minerva stayed down in the kitchen a bit longer to explain to the Weasleys what they were going to do, before heading upstairs too.

Half an hour later the three adults came downstairs again, Molly looking shaken but calm. “What was wrong?”, Ginny immediately piped up, worried but happy to see her mother again.

“Your mother was under a compulsion. I won’t go into details, but Elyx rebellion set her off. We took care of it. And don’t tell anyone, or you endanger her and us all”, Sirius summed up, his voice allowing no back-talk or questions. He settled down in his usual chair and served some tea. Meanwhile Minerva led Molly to the chair Dumbledore usually sat in – a high-backed, heavily upholstered monstrosity in purple – as it was the most comfortable chair around, and sat down beside her. 

The Weasleys and Hermione all huddled around them to offer comfort and support to the visibly shaken matriarch. 

After a sip of the tea, Molly sat her cup down with a clatter, as her hands were still shaking, and addressed Elyx meekly: “I’m sorry for how I treated you.”

“It’s all right. Let’s start over, won’t we?” 

“Thank you”, Molly whispered, while tears streamed down her face. Elyx went over and hugged her, letting her cry into her shoulder

\----------------------------------------------

The rest of the day was spent with more tea and nice conversation, before Minerva had to take off for an appointment. At sunset the inhabitants of Grimmauld Place became increasingly nervous. 

Elyx and Mrs. Weasley hustled from room to room in companionable silence, making sure everything was ready for the new arrivals. Padfoot fled into the garden, to run off the tension.

Hermione and the Weasley children retreated to Ron and Harry’s room – the twins had been moved into their own to give Harry more rest – to get out of the way and talk between themselves. 

After two hours of waiting they heard voices from the entrance hall. Elyx slid down the bannister to welcome her nakama, as she had recognized their voices at once. “Guys!”, she was heard yelling, followed by a thump and a shriek of Lady Blacks portrait, before the noise of something like a scuffle started up. When Fred and George appeared on the steps all they saw was a heap of colourful clothes and equally colourful hair interspersed with a glimpse of skin here and there. 

The twins brandished their wands, fearing an attack when they heard Elyx laugh and babble happily in a foreign tongue. Just then they noticed Dumbledore standing by the door, studying the group in front of him. 

After some more babbling and laughter and some good natured scolding – judging by the tone of voice – by a young woman with scarlet hair in armour and a plaited skirt, the group broke apart and Elyx turned to the twins and the other children who had joined them on the stairs now.

“Hey there! Come down and meet your new school mates!”, she called out and gestured for them to come closer. But before she could say anymore a blond girl in a white and blue tank top and incredibly short blue skirt sidled up to Elyx and whispered something in her ear. Elyx’ smile wavered for a moment before she turned to Dumbledore, gesturing at her team and barking at him in the other language.

The headmaster, who had just stood twinkling happily, suddenly looked like someone had stolen his sweets, drew his wand and flicked it at each of the visitors once.

“Can you understand me now?”, Elyx asked the other blonde in English. She brightened visibly and nodded. “Yeah. Now I understand you. How about the others?” Everyone confirmed that the spell worked, with a pink-haired guy in the weirdest clothes any of them had ever seen lighting his fist in exhilaration. 

Hermione yelped and all the kids retreated a bit back up the stairs. They had never seen or even expected something as crazy as a guy spontaneously catching fire. The scarlet-haired girl snapped “Natsu! Stop it, or you’ll set the house on fire!” and immediately the flames subsided. 

“Sorry. I got all fired up”, the boy grinned, showing off his elongated canines. 

Once everything had settled a little girl with long dark-blue hair stepped forward. “H-hello! I’m Wendy Marvell and this is Carla”, she gestured at a weird white cat in a dress who stood right behind her. “W-we are Elyx’ guild-mates…”

She was interrupted by the fire-boy, as Hermione thought of him, who almost shouted: “I’m Natsu! And that’s my friend Happy”, indicating a blue cat with a green bag around his neck. “Where's this Ha-ri guy we’re here to protect?”

He got slapped in the back of his head by the armoured girl. “Introduction first, rest second, baka.” Then she turned her icy glare on the children. “I’m Erza Scarlet. And these are Lucy, Grey, Juvia, Levy, Gajeel and Lisanna.” She went on, indicating each mage. “So, where’s Ha-ri?”

“Not Ha-ri, guys! His name is Harry. And he’ll arrive later. For now, we’ll get to know the people living here for the summer. The children are willing to help us keep an eye on him during the school year”, Elyx explained with a laugh. She was just about to introduce the other people present when a cough stopped her in her tracks. 

“Erza forgot to introduce me. My name is Panther Lily”, the serious-looking black cat stated. 

“Sorry, Lily. I hadn’t noticed that she missed you”, Elyx gave him an apologetic smile before she went on to introduce the children, Mrs. Weasley and Sirius who had slunk in while Elyx was buried under her guild mates. 

Once the introductions were out of the way, Hermione couldn’t keep it in any longer: “What’s your magic? And why do you have such vibrant hair colours? Is that clothing traditional for your world? What are those cats? Can you teach me your language? Are those names normal in your world? Can you teach me about your magic? Where will you be staying at Hogwarts? How did Natsu not get burned when his hand caught on fire?”

Before she could bust out another twenty questions Elyx held up her hand. “Stop it Hermione. I know you’re eager to learn, but they just arrived. Let’s get them settled – then you may ask again. ONE question at a time.”

The Fairy Tail mages looked at the bushy-haired witch wondering how one could talk so quickly. Gajeel, used to Levy’s antics when faced with something new and interesting, chuckled darkly and put his hand on the blue-haired mages head. “She’s just like you, Shrimp.” Levy couldn’t deny that, but she turned an angry shade of red and slapped him, because he pointed it out.

\----------------------------------

After everyone had been shown to their rooms – the Fairy Tail boys were in one room, the girls split up, Elyx and Wendy were rooming with Hermione and Ginny, the rest were in the adjacent room – all met up in the ground floor parlour, as Mrs. Weasley and Dumbledoer went to the kitchen to prepare for another Order meeting and Sirius went off pacing in the hallways, excited to see his godson again.

Hermione drove the Weasleys mad in the few minutes it took the mages to come back down, she was bouncing with energy, excited that her questions would finally be answered. When everyone was settled on the couches and chairs and even some of the tables standing around and all where chattering among their groups, Elyx rose to get their attention.

“Alright. Hermione, Levy, you two can start taking turns – one question at a time. Once you’re out of questions, the others can ask theirs. Everyone can answer, but please no demonstrations in here.”

With the rules set down, Hermione and Levy looked at each other, the blue-haired mage motioning for the witch to start. “Okay. The cats – what are they?”

Carla got up to answer, but Happy just cried out: “We’re Exceed!”

Seeing the confused looks of everyone Carla sighed and went on to explain about their origin and their magic, closing with: “And yes, we’ll go to your school with our team.”

Then it was Levy’s turn: “Elyx said you use owls for communication. How?”

“They carry our letters and parcels for us. They’ve been infused with magic, I’ve read, to help communication.”

“Why do most of you have such vibrant hair colours?”

“We’re born that way. Which are unusual here?”

“Blue, pink and Erza’s red. Here if people have red hair it’s not as brilliant.”

They went on and on until all questions were answered, then Elyx ushered them across the hallway and into the ballroom. “Now to the last and most important question: What can all of us do?”

The Hogwarts students were surprised that the Fairy Tail mages also expected to see their magic. “I thought you all know Elyx. She can do the same as us”, Ginny queried.

“Yeah we know her. But nah, she never showed us”, Grey drawled. Then they discussed the order in which they would show their powers, again Hogwarts and Fairy Tail were to take turns. 

Levy went first. She stepped into the centre of the room, pointed into the air and shouted “Iron”. The word appeared in front of her, the letters made of the material they spelled out. Gajeel went forward, picked it up and began munching on it while he went back to his place. Then Levy called some more words, including “fire” so Natsu would also get a snack. Finally, she scribbled something on the floor around her and went back to her place. 

Next up was George. He showed off some of the fireworks spells he and his brother had been working on. Then Gajeel took his place. He turned one of his arms into a sword and the other into a club. Finally he shouted “Iron Dragon’s Roar” and followed it up with the attack, but a barrier – the one Levy had put up before – kept the attack contained. “Shrimp! You ruined my show!”, he complained.

“Or you could say I protected everyone else. Natsu, Wendy, the barrier is keyed to your breath-attacks too”, the little script mage smirked, while being patted on the shoulder by Elyx.

In the meantime Hermione had taken Gajeel’s place. She showed off “Aguamenti”, splashing everyone with a bit of water, before she conjured a small blue flame which she then – following Levy’s example – handed Natsu, who sniffed it and then gobbled it down. “Thanks! That was delicious! You make good fire, Curly!” And then he began showing off, while Grey, Juvia and Elyx kept the house from burning down. 

Hermione scoffed at the nickname, but when she saw the raw firepower the boy commanded she bit her tongue, deciding it wouldn’t be wise to fight anyone from that group. Meanwhile Ginny had shown off her skills with a broom, which left the mages dumbfounded. “Why would you want to fly on a broom? That’s mental! Happy is much better!”, Natsu complained.

The blue Exceed immediately took off, pulling Natsu into the room with him. Carla and Panther Lily decided that was the right moment to show off their species’ abilities. Carla flew in intricate patterns around Happy and Natsu to demonstrate their agility while Lily went into battle mode, pulling out his sword Musica. After them Ron tried to show off some charms, most of which worked, but the last one blew up and left him tinted black.

Grey created some shapes out of ice, although he kept his demonstration short – they had already seen his abilities while he protected the roof from Natsu’s flames. Fred let them try out some prank articles he and his twin had already perfected. Juvia also kept it short, just demonstrating how she could turn herself to water. She was followed by Wendy, who could only show her breath attack, but explained her healing and reinforcement magic. 

After Wendy Lisanna turned into several of her Animals, which caught Sirius’ attention, who was just passing the room when she switched back from a bird. “You’re an animagus too, girl?”  
“What’s an animagus?”, Lisanna asked, her head tilted slightly.

“Someone who can turn into an animal. Like that.” And he morphed into Padfoot, sauntered over to her and morphed back.

“Oh nice! I have a cat take-over too! But I never learned to do a dog”, her observation left him speechless. Elyx stepped in to explain.

“Becoming an animagus means turning into your spirit animal, so he can only do one. But Lisanna is a take-over mage. She can change her appearance and some abilities by shifting into different forms. She is specialized in animals. Her older brother specializes in beasts – monsters, and her sister is a demon take-over mage. They can also change their appearance while in human form”, with that she motioned to Lisanna to show off that part of her skillset.

Immediately she was faced with her uncle Makarov. “Yo! Brats! Don’t destroy everything!”, the miniscule guild master shouted before turning back into a giggling Lisanna. “You should have seen all your faces”, she wheezed, gesturing at her guildmates. 

Then Elyx, Lisanna and Sirius returned to the sides to watch Erza’s show. The requip mage took the stage and immediately requipped into her Fire Empress Armour, followed by the Sea Empress Armour and the Armadura Fairy Armour. She topped it off with her Heaven’s Wheel Armour, including all the swords. She held this for a bit for all to marvel at before changing into her bunny costume and walking off without having uttered a single word.

The boys’ and Sirius’ eyes were glued to the scantily clad mage so they didn’t notice that Lucy went into the centre of the room, fiddling with her keys, wondering which spirit would be best to show off. She decided to go with Loke. “Gate of Lion I open thee! Leo!”, she called, drawing the drooling males’ attention as a bright light surrounded her and a bell was heard. Suddenly a young man with a wild mane of Weasley-red hair dressed in a suit and sunglasses stood before her. 

“Did you miss me, princess?”, he asked teasingly, sidling up very close to her. Immediately Lucy turned bright red and began screaming at him, switching to Fiorean in her fury, so the wizards didn’t fully get what was going on. Once the rage was out of her system Lucy had Loke show off some of his magic, leaving a big indention in the floor after a jump and Regulus impact. 

Upon hearing the name of the spirit’s magic Sirius flinched, and a pained look crossed his face, but he hid it before anyone could notice – or so he thought. Three dragon slayers had picked up on the smell of pain. 

After she had sent Loke back, Lucy called Plue to keep her company and asked whether Elyx could repair the floor. “I’ll do it”, Sirius volunteered, pointing his wand and muttering “Reparo” and immediately the pieces of floor returned to their place as if nothing had ever happened. Then he went over to Lisanna to chat with her about take-over magic. 

Meanwhile Levy and Lucy cornered the twins inquiring about their creations and Natsu bugged Hermione to make some more fire for him, which she did in exchange for more information on Fiore. Ginny chatted with Wendy and Carla while Ron tried unsuccessfully to engage Gajeel in a conversation, who was occupied with watching Levy. Grey turned to Elyx to get back his clothes – he had dropped his coat and shirt while doing magic – followed as always by Juvia, who almost fainted from excitement over seeing Grey’s naked torso.

After a while Elyx, who stood closest to the door, noticed hushed voices from the entrance hall. Leaving Grey to reanimate Juvia she slipped outside. 

“Yo! You don’t have to whisper. I’ve got her under control”, she greeted after closing the door, gesturing towards the picture of Lady Walburga. At that the curtains rippled and some noise was heard from behind them, but no shouting. She turned to the portrait and murmured: “I’ll let you out once you stop insulting everyone.”

Turning back around she took in the newcomers, recognizing the volunteers and finally zeroing in on the black-haired boy. “Hi Harry. I’m Elyx. Nice to meet ya”, she greeted and held out her hand.

Timidly the boy reached out and shook it. Elyx noticed his magic thrumming under his skin, but there was also some other energy present in the young wizard. She stared at him and frowned trying to find out what was wrong. She didn’t notice how much time passed or the fear that passed over the boy’s face, until he tried pulling his hand back. 

That snapped her out of it. “I’m sorry! I completely zoned out there for a moment. How rude of me!”

“It’s okay”, Harry mumbled. Elyx was shocked that he seemed so shy, so different from both his parents. The awkward exchange was broken up by Tonks, who now sported bubble-gum pink hair. 

“Wotcher, Elyx! Your guys already here?”

“Yeah. In the ballroom with Sirius and the children. They’re all getting to know each other.”

“Neat. Let’s go meet them, Mad-Eye”, the Metamorphmagus tried to pull Harry and Moody after her, when the door to the kitchen was opened and Molly Weasley came bustling out.

“Oh, Harry, it’s lovely to see you!”, she said, pulling him into a rib-cracking hug. “You look peaky. We’ll need to feed you. But dinner has to wait a bit. Go say hello to everyone.” Then she pushed him towards Elyx “Take him to the others, then come down with Sirius. We should get the meeting over with so we can start to feed that poor boy.” Then she shooed the group down into the kitchen.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi! Harry meeting Mrs. Weasley is partly copied from OotP. 
> 
> Wow! Fifth chapter. Yey! How do you like it so far? I'll try to update once a week now - wish me luck! ;)


	6. Worries and Weaknesses

Harry just stood there in the hallway looking utterly confused, until Elyx said: “Let’s go see your friends, they’re in here”, and gestured at the door she had come through. When he didn’t move right away, she gently tugged at his hand to pull him after her while starting for the door. Once she opened it, he heard a lot of teenagers chattering, it almost felt like Hogwarts. But the first familiar face he saw was Sirius’ who was chatting animatedly with an extremely fair-skinned girl with white hair and big blue eyes.

“Sirius! You’re here!”, Harry gasped, completely stunned to finally see his godfather again.

“Of course I’m here. Hasn’t anyone told you? This was my parents’ house. But I’m the last Black left, so it’s mine now. I offered it to Dumbledore for Headquarters – about the only useful thing I’ve been able to do”, the man replied, unable to keep frustration out of his voice.

“I hate to do that, but can we leave the reunions and explanations for later? The Order expects us downstairs, Sirius”, Elyx interrupted. “Harry, take your time to catch up with your friends and get to know the others here – Erza can you explain to him who we are? I’ll update all of you about the meeting afterwards.” With that she made for the door, but Fred and George stopped her.

“What do you mean you’ll update us?”, Fred asked.  
“They don’t want us to know anything, as we’re not in the Order”, George added.

Elyx just shrugged. “Well, as far as I’m concerned you’re the junior division. I can’t tell you about everything, but I’ll keep you posted on everything concerning you as long as no one is endangered by that knowledge.”

Now Ginny spoke up: “But Dumbledore…”

“What about him? Will you tell him? If not I don’t see any problem”, and with a sly smile Elyx pulled Sirius after her – lunch had been too long ago, she didn’t want to put dinner off much longer.

When the door shut behind them Harry took a good look at his surroundings. They were standing in a huge room with grand windows looking out into what might once have been a garden but now looked like wilderness. Around him stood more than a dozen people of whom he recognized only five: Hermione, Ron, Ginny and the twins.

The others looked quite diverse; there was a girl with even more intense red hair than the Weasleys who wore armour, three girls with hair in different shades of blue, one of them looked like a third-year at most, the white-haired girl that had talked to Sirius and a busty blonde with a whip who talked to a flying blue cat. The boys looked a bit less weird, the two of them with black hair looking deceivingly normal, but then the bigger one turned to face him and he noticed the piercings and the red eyes and somehow the smaller one had lost his coat and shirt while Harry looked at piercing-guy and was now standing there bare-chested. But the weirdest of the group was by far a guy with hair as pink as the flowers of a cherry tree who wore wide trousers, some black fabric around his waist, an open, sleeveless waistcoat and a scaly-looking white scarf.

“They sure are a weird bunch, don’t ya think”, Fred grinned while giving Harry a pat on the shoulder.

“Yeah”, the black-haired wizard grumbled. 

“May I introduce us? We are mages of Fairy Tail. My name is Erza Scarlet and this is Natsu Dragneel…” She went through the whole spiel, gesturing at each of them. “We’re here to protect you. We’ll come to your school with you.”

Harry just looked at her in disbelief. Then he looked at Ron and Hermione, who still had to say anything, and something within him snapped.

“NOW? NOW YOU’RE HERE TO PROTECT ME?! BLOODY HELL, I ALMOST LOST MY SOUL LAST WEEK AND I CAN HARDLY COUNT HOW OFTEN I ALMOST DIED IN THE PAST YEAR! PROTECTION! PAH!” then he directed his anger at his friends.

“AND YOU, MY SO-CALLED BEST FRIENDS! HANGING OUT HERE IN A FRIGGIN’ BALLROOM, NOT EVEN BOTHERING TO COME WELCOME ME!”

Hermione took a step towards him, but he made a slashing motion with his hand to stop her in her tracks.

“JUST USELESS LETTERS ALL SUMMER, HINTS!”

“Mate, we – “, Ron began, but Harry only raised his voice.

“I SAW VOLDEMORT REGAIN HIS POWER, I ALMOST DIED! AND NO ONE FUCKING CARES!”

“We do!”, Hermione interjected in vain, wanting to reach out to him.

“YOU DON’T! NO ONE SAID ANYTHING OR DID ANYTHING! NO, JUST LEAVE ME WITH MY FRIGGIN RELATIVES, ‘YOU’RE SAFE THERE’! HAH! I GOT ATTACKED BY DEMENTORS! HAD TO FIGHT THEM OFF ON MY OWN! I almost didn’t make it! It was so hard to find a happy memory…” finally he crumbled, tears streaming down his reddened face. 

He began to sway, but before he could fall Hermione and Ron were there to steady him, making him sit down on the floor with them they just hugged him until he calmed down. “I-I’m so sorry, Harry! W-we wanted to tell you, but we weren’t allowed. Either we kept the secret or we were banned from writing letters altogether…”, Hermione tried to explain, while she fought her own tears.

“And they didn’t tell us much anyway”, Ron added, shaken and angry. “If it wasn’t for Fred and George we wouldn’t know anything.”

They remained on the floor until they all had calmed down, and everything that had pained them in the past months was brought to light. Ron’s siblings and the Fairy Tail mages had moved to the far end of the room to give them the necessary privacy. They tried to have conversations, but everyone felt subdued by the pain of the trio, so soon they just took to standing around awkwardly, trying not to look at them.

When she noticed the worst had blown over, Erza marched up to them, fixing Harry with a piercing gaze and stated: “You have the option to call it all off. We don’t want to force our services on you. We expected this decision might have been made without your consent and we talked to our master about it. He agreed that it should be your decision, not anyone else’s.” 

Harry considered her words for a few moments, then he got to his feet, pulling Hermione and Ron up with him, before facing the armoured girl. “I am sorry for my reaction. I would appreciate more protection, but not only for myself, but also for my friends.”

“We were hired to protect you and the whole school. That includes your friends, yes?”, Erza began to smile, suddenly looking much younger than before.

“Most of them… Thank you for offering me a choice. I felt like I had none for the past few … well, in fact I never was given any real choices at all. Everything was decided for me…”, he smiled, although tears threatened to spill again. Then he straightened in resolve and stated: “Let’s start over. I was so overwhelmed I didn’t really get your names. And please tell me more about you. We’ll spend a lot of time together it seems.”

\---------------------------------------------------

While they settled down to get to know each other, down in the kitchen Elyx fought the urge to yawn. They were going through the day of one Death Eater an Order member was shadowing. A businessman and his family. It had already been about half an hour and they hadn’t even covered a whole day – the last report had been a week ago so she could guess how much longer this would go on.

Sirius, who was sitting beside her this time, wasn’t faring any better. He had his head propped up on his hand and did his best to stay awake. When his eyes closed, she nudged him to keep him awake. Then she got up.

“Sit back down, girly”, a scruffy looking old wizard scolded. 

“No. We’re wasting time here. A summary would be more than enough. We don’t need to know what this family had for breakfast. But we need to make plans for the coming weeks – how to deal with Mr. Potter’s hearing, how to ensure security while we’re out getting school supplies and how everyone will get to Kings Cross. And I need a report on what Voldy is doing,”, she stated and looked around, daring anyone to contradict her.

Beside her Sirius almost fell off his chair, making weird noises which they discovered to be giggles – he hadn’t done that in such a long time. “You should see your faces”, he wheezed, trying to keep upright.

The other witches and wizards were scandalized. How did that insolent girl dare to criticize them? Why was she even here? And calling He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named Voldy to top it all off! But a chuckle from the other end of the table put a damper on their outrage. Albus Dumbeldore was amused and impressed with his former ward. He had to admit to himself, that what she said was true, although she might have missed some aspects of the Order. But calling Voldemort Voldy really was something else, even for the old headmaster.

“My friends. Our youngest member is right. We should condense the reports and focus on the plans. So, Simon, can you do that?”, the head of the Order turned to the man who had been speaking.

“O-of course. The Malfoys didn’t do anything extraordinary in the past week. I would like a second opinion, if anyone has the time, to make sure I didn’t miss anything, but other than that I’m done”, the blond wizard who was disguised for the day as a gardener, wearing green overalls and a straw hat, smiled and sat down.

“Any volunteers? Severus, thank you. Get together after the meeting. Next, the observation of suspected Death Eater Nott.”

With the new system, a short summary and a volunteer to look over it in detail, they breezed through the other suspected Death Eaters and other projects that were running continuously. After twenty minutes, they were done and turned to making new plans, starting with security projects for different shops in Diagon Alley and other possible targets.

Then Shacklebolt gave them a report of everything they heard about Voldemort’s activities, beginning with the most plausible information and working his way down to crazy stories like “You-Know-Who is hiding in a tea shop in Wales disguised as the owner, a sweet old lady with thirty cats”. Everyone agreed that it was good to hear all of the stories, as one could never know what the dark wizard was thinking.

Finally, they got to Harry Potter. “As we discussed last time, our dear Harry was attacked by Dementors and now is facing a disciplinary hearing at the Ministry because of it”, Dumbledore began. “Luckily I could keep them from taking his wand until then. But now we need to think about how we will get Harry there, who will go with him and how he can best be protected.”

“Erza, me and someone from the Order. Maybe Mr. Weasley? I heard you are working at the Ministry”, Elyx immediately proposed.

“We cannot send Harry there with just two girls as protection!”, a guy named Daedalus Diggle protested and the majority of the others nodded and murmured in agreement.

“Oh, we are not just any two girls, dear sir”, Elyx smirked. She had already sent a note up to her teammate by charming some parchment. Just as another wizard wanted to complain, the door was slammed open and everyone screamed and tried to hide. In the door stood something they could only describe as a demon with two swords in her hands.

“Thank you, Erza. I think now they understand what I meant”, Elyx giggled and the other girl was wrapped in golden light and suddenly she stood there wearing her usual armour and skirt – looking intimidating nonetheless. 

“Do you need any more help? We were just having a little showing and I need to keep Natsu in check.”

“Another showing? Oh great! Sirius will you help me clean up after them? I had really hoped we could save that for tomorrow…”, she moaned, while expressing her thanks to Erza in practiced sign language.

Once the door closed behind the red-head, she turned her attention back at the Order. Diggle and some others looked at her like she was some monster. Dumbledore, still being a bit shocked himself, stood up to get everyone’s attention. “I have to agree with Elyx. They seem to be a good team. And people won’t think much about two schoolgirls roaming the Ministry. Arthur, can you take them? I will try to come too.”

Arthur Weasley nodded. Right when Dumbledore was about to turn to the next point Elyx cursed. “Language!” several Order members hissed.

“Sorry. I just realized with everything that I’ve been told has been going on the Minister and his minions might try to outsmart us and get Harry into even more trouble. We should try to be there first thing in the morning to make sure we’re okay. But that means getting up before dawn… I hate getting up early.” 

Her admission had some of the adults snickering, lightening the mood. Many of them felt better, now that she was acting as old as she looked. Dumbledore touched the tips of his long fingers together and looked over them down the table, going over her theory. “I agree. We’ll go there as early as possible. Arthur, Molly, I rely on you to rouse everyone. And now on to our next point: How do we make shopping for school supplies safe?”

Some recommended that “the children” should just be left at Grimmauld Place and Molly go out to Diagon Alley with some experienced Order Members to pick everything up. Others shot that down, arguing they shouldn’t let their lives and those of the children be curbed by fear.

“My whole team will also have to go there, so we’ll have security right with them. No one will ever be alone. But maybe it would be good to have some reinforcements on scene”, Elyx informed them. 

Dumbledore nodded and just asked: “Volunteers?”

Immediately several hands shot up and it was decided that everyone not busy otherwise would just go shopping the same day as the inhabitants of Grimmauld Place. 

For the first of September, they decided the Fairy Tail mages should go ahead to Kings Cross and Harry and the other children should arrive a bit later with the Weasleys. They didn’t want to draw too much attention to the fact that the kids already knew the foreigners. Some Order members volunteered to accompany the Weasleys to Kings Cross until Fairy Tail could take over.

Then the stage was opened for questions and miscellaneous requests. Half an hour later they were finally done. After Elyx bid everyone good-bye, taking off up the stairs, Sirius, Remus and Minerva following her swiftly.

\---------------------------------------------------

Just when they arrived at the ballroom-door a heatwave hit them. “Crap! Natsu!! I’ll make you regret it if you set anyone on fire!” Elyx pulled a sword out of her satchel, kicked the door open and was prepared to cut a certain mage into very small pieces for endangering their charges. But she skidded to a halt, when she saw what was really going on: Natsu and Grey were taking turns in producing shaped fireworks, while the others lounged about and seemingly scored their creations.

“Wh- what is going on here?”, Remus sputtered behind her.

“I’d like to know that too… Lisanna!”, Elyx called out to her nearest teammate.

“Hello, everyone”, the white-haired mage greeted them. “I hope your meeting went well? Miss Granger managed to get them to show off without being destructive,” she added cheerfully when she noticed what everyone was looking at.

“And how did she do that?”, Minerva queried with a raised brow.

“Well, I didn’t really see what happened, but I heard Natsu nearly burnt a book of hers while squabbling with Grey and then I saw them cowering before her like when Erza gets angry with them.”

“Really? Fascinating”, Elyx mused, eyeing the witch with interest while she took a seat on the floor.

“What’s with that look?”, Remus asked Sirius and Minerva but both were clueless and shrugged. Then they conjured up chairs for themselves to watch the fireworks.

When a flaming dog chased an icy cat they all laughed heartily before the boys finally produced the Fairy Tail insignia together. Erza and Hermione who sat in the centre of the first row clapped and nodded appreciatively. Natsu and Grey scurried apart, Natsu trying to hide behind Lucy.

That was when Harry noticed the return of his godfather. “Sirius! It’s so good to see you! And Remus! Professor McGonagall? You’re in the Order too?”

“Indeed Mr. Potter. And I’m glad to see you whole and healthy”, Minerva responded with a kind smile.

“Yeah, no thanks to the Order for that…”, Harry grumbled, taking his teacher aback. It pained the witch that she hadn’t been able to protect one of her “cubs”. 

“I’m sorry, Harry. My mother wasn’t involved in that, please don’t take it out on her”, Elyx interjected, trying to mitigate the situation.

“Your WHAT?!”, the Hogwarts students who had overheard gasped in unison.

“My mum. The woman who raised me. We’re not related by blood but by all means that count”, Elyx explained with a fond smile. 

“Indeed. Everything from dirty diapers over lost teeth and accidental magic, good-night stories and the first love. You do remember that, don’t you Mr. Black?” McGonagall’s smile became very mischievous, but Sirius just looked at her like she had grown another head.

Remus caught on way quicker than his friend and burst out into a hearty laugh. “What?! What am I missing?!” Sirius looked from his friend to his old teacher in confusion. Elyx stood off to the side, red-faced and obviously trying to melt into the tapestry – her clothes had already taken on the design.

Harry watched in confusion, but when he noticed Elyx’ behaviour and how she looked at Sirius it clicked and he joined into the laughter. Sirius regarded his godson in confusion, until he noticed the blushing and camouflaging mage behind him. His face fell as he remembered the star-struck looks little Elyx had always shot him and how she had always followed the Marauders when Minerva was busy.  
“Oh! Oh… I- I never realized…” He looked exactly like a sad dog. Just then Natsu and Gajeel got into a fight and the fire dragon-slayer was thrown through the room – and the wall – by an iron pole.

“Shut it, Flamehead!”, Gajeel roared, rushing right after his opponent. But he was intercepted by Erza, who grabbed him by the scruff of his neck and chucked him upside-down into a corner. 

“If you destroy anything else, you’ll regret it”, the red-head stated. 

“B-but Firebreath… He insulted Levy!” That made Erza redirect her anger at the boy who had just jumped to his feet again, ready to flee. He was grabbed around an ankle by a pane of fabric and dragged right in front of Erza. Elyx and she had years ago come to the agreement to leave the scolding and punishing to Erza whenever she was around. 

“What is it that I hear? You insulted a teammate? How shall I punish you?”, Erza glowered while tapping her chin with her index finger. 

“Erza, it’s okay. He only said I was a bookworm. That’s not really an insult”, Levy interfered with a smile. Erza deflated immediately. “Hm. Alright. But Gajeel destroyed the wall…” 

“That’s not a problem. Reparo!”, Minerva pointed her wand at the wall and immediately it pieced itself together until not a single trace of the destruction was left.

“Your magic is so useful!”, Lucy gushed. 

“Yes! Master would save so much money on repairs”, Lisanna added. 

“Repairs? What do you mean?”, Ron asked, his focus completely on the busty blonde who had taken his fancy.

“Oh, just the usual stuff…”, Levy began. “Holes in the guildhall, destroyed buildings, ports, towns… And of course all the furniture. Fairy Tail is rather rowdy, but we get the job done.”

“D-destroyed towns? What has Albus gotten us into?!”, Minerva yowled, imagining her beloved Hogwarts in ruins.

“Yeah. When I first met Natsu he saved me from kidnappers and together we destroyed the whole port and half of the town of Hargeon. But it’s already been rebuilt…”, Lucy offered, hoping to soften the blow a bit, but only resulting in Minerva clutching at her heart and almost falling unconscious. 

Elyx caught her and began rubbing calming circles on her back. “Don’t worry mum, we have orders to destroy as few things as possible and we’re training to do just that. We’ll really protect Hogwarts, you’ll see”, she offered with a wry smile. 

\---------------------------------------------------

After everyone had calmed down again they guessed that enough time had passed for the Order meeting to dissolve and as all of them were rather hungry, they made their way down to the kitchen.

Ron and Natsu led the way – the dragon-slayer following his nose – while Harry, Sirius and Remus brought up the rear, catching up on the past year and more since they hadn’t seen each other. Harry was happy to finally be around people who wanted him around, to be included and informed. He asked what felt like a thousand questions, really trying to make up the time lost at the Dursleys. 

“He’s rather inquisitive, isn’t he?”, Erza murmured as she fell into step beside Elyx and her mother. 

“Indeed. This is rather unusual. Normally he’s rather calm and withdrawn”, Minerva observed. “I wonder what caused the change…”

“Maybe being kept out of the loop for weeks?”, Elyx asked, her voice dripping with sarcasm. “Or it could also be the being alone stuff, you know. I wonder what Dumbledore was thinking. Isolation is never a good thing.” 

“True words. Do you think we can help in any way?” 

“Maybe someday, if we become his friends, but for now that’s up to those he trusts already.”

When a huge crash sounded through the door, Natsu had just vanished through, Erza and Elyx flew down the stairs to make sure he didn’t break anything again. But instead they found Molly scolding Tonks for dropping all the dishes, while she repaired them with a wave of her wand.

“I’m glad it’s not just us”, Erza chuckled and went over to take the plates from the clumsy witch.

Elyx looked around to check none of her guildmates was up to any mischief. Natsu was sitting by the stove, munching on some flames, with Happy standing beside him and grilling a fish. 

Gajeel was leaning in a corner watching Levy who read a book she had gotten from Hermione who was chatting with Lisanna and Lucy. Grey sat beside them, pretending not to listen in, and Elyx subtly conjured a new shirt for him, because he had lost his once again, which sent Juvia into a pout.  
Ginny was chatting with Lily and Carla, going by her gestures she explained Quidditch to them. Wendy had been cornered by the twins and Elyx decided to monitor that situation, in case the younger mage needed help. After choosing a seat which gave her a good overview she turned her attention to the adults in the room. 

Mr. Weasley and his son Bill, whom Elyx had met twice during her stay were just packing away a bunch of plans they had been studying and discussing for a classified Order-mission. 

In a corner lay a bundle of rags which Elyx had learned was also a member, but one she really didn’t care about. She hadn’t even bothered to learn his name. When the rags tried to light a pipe with some stinking herbs she slapped the thing out of his hand with some fabric. Whenever he smoked the stuff Molly got angry and she really didn’t want too much more shouting. 

Dumbledore – great leader he was – had already left, not bothering to even greet Harry. She wondered what was going on in his head. She was pulled out of her musings when she felt the magic of May-Eye’s eye tug on hers. He pointed at the blue-haired mage in the corner who was still being interrogated by two red-heads, but now she was getting more and more red and Elyx felt her magic rise. 

Instead of stopping her, she decided it would be a good lesson, so she just prepared to cushion what would happen. A few sentences later the mage had enough. “Sky Dragon ROAR!” she yelled and the wizards where thrown back a few steps before Elyx cushioned their fall. 

The whole kitchen fell silent. Molly, who hadn’t seen what was going on, stalled because she didn’t know whether to scold or protect her sons. Bill and Arthur went over to them and helped them up. Meanwhile Carla, Lucy and Natsu went over to Wendy to check whether she was alright.

Mad-Eye was the first to speak: “Cheers, girly! Well done.” That seemed to close the topic for him, as he turned to some paperwork he had in front of him. 

“What did you do this time?”, Molly, now certain about what to do, turned to her still dazed sons. 

Fred rubbed the back of his neck and gave his mother a lopsided smile. “We just talked, Mum.”

“Of course. What about?”

“Food”, Fred began.  
“Fruit”, George added.  
“Pickled fruit…”  
“Sour plums.”

“What?” Mollys question was echoed by the other wizards present, but the Fairy Tail mages just nodded, understanding what had happened.

“Wendy hates sour plums. They’re her weakness. And if she’s teased too much about it – well, you saw what happens”, Lucy explained, still fussing over the blue-haired dragon slayer. 

“What I’d like to know would be how they found out about it so fast”, Erza mused. 

“Talent.” George deadpanned. 

After that Molly called everyone to the table and within moments everyone was happily munching on their dinner and chatting.

\---------------------------------------------------

“Welcome to your new room. You’re bunking with Ron, and either Natsu or Grey, your choice. Hermione, Ginny, Wendy and I are next door to the left, the twins, Gajeel and either Natsu or Grey to the right. The other girls are upstairs, right above you. Sirius is staying in his old room, top floor, initials on the door”, Elyx added. “So, who do you want as bodyguard?”

“Who snores louder?”, Harry replied jokingly, inadvertently setting off another fight between Natsu and Grey. “I see why only one of them…” 

“Yeah. They are like that all the time”, Lucy smiled apologetically. “And by the way, Natsu could wake the dead.”

Erza ended the fight, by staring the guys down after she had requipped two swords. Immediately they hugged each other, acting like they didn’t fight at all. 

“Seems like Grey will sleep here. Natsu, Gajeel, don’t kill each other. Even better: Just don’t talk or look at each other. Both of you will take the lower bunks, the twins sleep in the top ones – easier to protect. No discussion about that”, Elyx growled, when all four of them started to complain. 

“Good night, everyone.” With that Erza led Lucy, Levy, Juvia and Lisanna upstairs. Everyone followed their lead without too much complaining, being drained due to the eventful evening.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Got that done much faster than expected. :)


	7. Chapter 7 - Nakama

“What the hell?!” Harry’s yell sent every mage in hearing range bursting into his room. 

A really nice way to start the day: Several half-clad mages standing in your room ready to fight while a girl lies in your bed, berating you for not being her “beloved Gray-sama”. When they realized what had happened, all the mages burst out laughing: Juvia had climbed into the wrong bed. Gray, standing stark naked in front of his bed, face-palmed when she fell unconscious upon seeing him – it wasn’t the first time. 

“Well, I’ll go have a shower…”, Harry grumbled, handing Juvia to Elyx.

“What’s going on?”, Ron mumbled, rubbing his eyes, finally waking up. 

“Oh, just the usual. Juvia tried to sneak into Gray’s bed and accidentally ended up in Harry’s”, Elyx waved it off, while throwing clothes at the un-clad ice-mage. “You can look again”, she said to Wendy, who had covered her eyes and blushed furiously upon seeing her guild-mate naked. 

Gajeel meanwhile had taken over Juvia, carrying her up to her room where she was revived only to be scolded by Erza.

\-------------------------------------------------

Half an hour later they all were down in the kitchen for breakfast, Juvia sat between Levy and Lisanna, to keep her from doing more stupid things. Molly had been up and making breakfast for some time already and they were all served huge plates loaded with a full English breakfast: Eggs, bacon, sausages, baked beans, hash browns, black pudding, grilled tomatoes and mushrooms, toast with different spreads, and on the table stood some cereal, milk, orange juice, tea and a bowl with nails for Gajeel.

The Fairy Tail mages happily dug in, especially Natsu, as always. “The boy has got a black hole for a stomach, hasn’t he?”, Molly whispered to Sirius, who had been down before her, brooding over a cup of tea.

“Indeed. Reminds me of James after Quidditch practice”, Sirius smiled, looking from Natsu to Harry, who was listlessly poking at his scrambled eggs. Noticing something was wrong, he sat beside his godson. “What’s up?”

“Nothing,” Harry grumbled, but after a few moments he deflated and confessed: “It’s the hearing. I’m afraid they’ll expel me, break my wand, maybe send me to Azkaban…”

“Ah, I see. Don’t worry. They’ve never sent someone there because of a Statute of Secrecy violation. And even if you’re expelled, you don’t have to go back to them. You can stay here with me”, Sirius tried to comfort him.

“I hope nothing goes wrong…”

“Nothing will. Erza and I will be there to protect you. I promise it will be alright. And if you are expelled, you can come to Fiore and learn our magic. You have a knack for it, I’m sure.”

Harry looked at Elyx, who had listened in on their conversation, as if she had grown a second head. “You’ll really come along?”

“Of course! We’ve been hired to protect you, so that’s what we’ll do. Including your freedom from unjust accusations. And you’re Prongs’ and Lily’s son, so I would do it without the job.”

“Prongs? You knew my father? How? You’re my age!”, Harry exclaimed. 

“Ah, yes. We didn’t explain everything to you yesterday. I’m sorry. I completely forgot about this. I had an accident seven years ago. Since then I stopped ageing. I’m actually twenty-five.”

“So you grew up here, adopted by Professor McGonagall and what happened then? How come you didn’t go to Hogwarts but to that other school?”

“When I was a baby some Death Eaters kidnapped me because they thought the Ancient Magic is hereditary. Well, the talent for it is, but you still have to learn it. Anyway, the Order then saved me from them before they could permanently harm me and Mum adopted me. But when I was eleven, during my first year in Hogwarts, my real uncle found me and took me back to my remaining family. But Professor Dumbledore provided me with enough materials so I could continue learning Hogwarts-Magic as I call it.”

“Alright. Would you mind telling me more about your school? So its name is Fiore, I take it?”

Elyx noticed her slip-up. It seemed she had to tell at least Harry everything. But he deserved it anyway. “You know, I’d like to finish my breakfast first. If you don’t have anything else planned, we can meet and talk up in the second-floor library. It’s a really nice place to hang out.” 

Harry nodded and dug into his breakfast with much more fervour. Elyx cursed internally, glad it was Sirius who sat on Harry’s other side, as he was in the know already. 

After breakfast Molly convinced everyone to join her in her cleaning endeavours, but agreed to let them off after lunch, as they could easily keep up their four rooms a day due to their increased numbers. Elyx laid out a strategy, forming eight teams, so they could benefit from their diverse abilities. In order to be able to talk to Harry in private, she teamed up with him, because if they didn’t help, everyone would complain.

(A/N: Teams as following: Natsu & George, Gray & Fred, Lucy & Juvia & Ginny, Hermione & Levy, Ron & Lisanna & Gajeel, Molly & Erza, Sirius & Wendy, Elyx & Harry)

“But I thought, you wanted Harry to rest?”, Molly asked her discreetly before they set out. 

“Oh, he can do just that. You know I can take care of the pests and the dust on my own. I just want him to feel included, so he can help or we’ll just chat.” Molly nodded in understanding.

Then the matron led them all to their respective rooms and set them to work.

\-----------------------------------------------

“Finally we’re alone. Well, that’s not as nice as the library, but we can talk here as well as there”, Elyx started once the door had closed behind them.

The scrawny black-haired teenager stood by the door and looked around in amazement. They had been charged with one of the representative parlours, so the room was exquisitely decorated and it still showed in spite of the clear signs of neglect and decay.

“U-hu. Padfoot’s family really knows how to show off. I’ll get started cleaning. If you want to help, just stun anything that tries to flee. I guess you know that spell?”

“Um… yeah. It’s been quite useful already. But you know I’m not allowed to?”

“Here you are. Grimmauld Place here is under heavy blood wards. Even if the Trace went off, the Ministry couldn’t find you.”

“Really?” Harry looked giddy at the possibility to use his magic again. 

“Jep. You wanna talk while we work?” Elyx unleashed her magic and made all the curtains and rugs in the room and even the tapestry press itself against the roof. Immediately several creatures began to scurry about.

“’Course. So tell me about your school. Stupefy!” Harry hit one of the creatures with the spell while dodging another that came flying at him at high speed.

Elyx stunned that one once it was past his head and jumped over another that was running at her. “Actually the school is just a story we made up for your classmates, to make our presence more plausible. Stupefy! We’re from another world. Everything I told you was true, just not that we’re from Japan. Locomotor mortis!”

“Nice aim. So no school? Who exactly are you guys?” She saw in the corner of her eye how he caught a small flying pest out of the air with ease and used Petrificus totalus on it before dropping the fragile creature on a table. 

“Nope, no school. We are part of a mages’ guild, an association of mages who can be hired to do odd jobs for non-magical folks. That guild is called Fairy Tail. It’s situated in the city of Magnolia, country of Fiore, in another world called Earthland by its inhabitants. My uncle, Makarov Dreyar is the guildmaster.” Meanwhile she had eliminated a swarm of some creatures that were running up the walls by trapping them with her tentacles.

“Alright. So you live openly with your Muggles? No Statute of Secrecy?” Harry began to breathe heavily, not used to that kind of exercise, but obviously enjoying himself.

“Luckily not. But the rate of Muggleborns is also much higher. In our world it’s not all genetics whether you get magic or not. It’s also luck and dedication. Because if your magic container is too small to have magic at a young age you could still expand it by meditation and learn how to do some magic. Ouch! Baka!” A gnome-like creature had thrown a book at her and hit her on the shoulder. Elyx whipped around and stunned the creature, which fell out of the shelf it had lived in and was squished by the huge tome it had prepared to throw at Harry.

“Sorry. I didn’t want to kill anything in here. Molly is not as squeamish about that as I am, so I just stun them and bring them to her and Ginny. I really hate killing pests.”

“Yeah, me too. In the cupboard there always were hundreds of spiders. I usually just picked them up and set them aside if they bothered me”, Harry remembered.

“Cupboard?”

“Oh, um… until I got my Hogwarts letter my aunt and uncle made me sleep in the cupboard under the stairs. I’m happy they moved me up into the spare bedroom then, because I wouldn’t fit in there anymore”, he gave a little shrug and a sad smile that made Elyx want to hug him.

“I’m sorry I wasn’t here”, was all she managed to say, so saddened by what the son of her friends had endured. After this they got rid of the last pests and started dusting the room. 

“So… I guess you were hired by Professor Dumbledore to protect me?”

“Yes. He asked for the youngest members so we can pose as students.”

“I see. Thanks again for letting me decide. I already told your friends, but I’m really happy you all are here”, Harry gave her a smile that reminded her a lot of his parents. 

“I’m glad we were called”, Elyx replied. On an afterthought she added: “And they are not just friends. They are nakama. That means comrades and if you are a Fairy Tail mage it also means family.”

“Nakama. That’s a great word. I’d love to have nakama too”, Harry dusted off a candlestick he had already dusted twice.

“You already have them. Hermione, Ron, Sirius, Remus, even Ginny and the twins. They really care about you. And you care about them. That feeling is what makes nakama. We just have the sign to prove it”, and with that Elyx lifted her shirt to show the purple mark on the left side of her stomach, just above her hip. 

“At home I usually wear crop tops, because it’s much warmer. And here it’s easy to cover up for a mission”, she explained the positioning, when Harry began to blush at seeing that much skin. 

Dropping her shirt back into place she giggled and turned back to dusting, giving him some time to deal with those pesky hormones. 

“Elyx, I just remembered…”, he began after a while, “you said I’d have a knack for your kind of magic. Is that why you held onto my hand for so long when we first met?”

“It’s part of the reason. I also felt a taint on your magic, like someone had left a mark. I guess it’s from that curse…”, she trailed off gesturing to her own forehead. 

“Yeah. I can feel his presence, it’s very painful…” Harry stopped, when he saw a pained look cross her face. “It’s not your fault. You couldn’t have changed it, you know?”

“Hmm… Maybe. But you would have at least had one friend right from the start.” 

“That would have been nice. Maybe we can become friends now?”

“I’d like that. You’ve grown into a nice young man, despite everything bad that I heard has happened to you”, she gave him a bright smile. For a few moments they just stood there, cleaning forgotten and none of them knew what to say. 

“Can you teach me?”, the young wizard asked on a whim.

“What?”

“Your magic of course!”, he laughed at her dumbfounded look.

“I can. But why? You can do so much with your magic already”, Elyx pointed out. 

“Yes. But only as long as I have my wand. Without it I’m powerless. And I think concentrating on learning new magic … well, it would take my mind off some things, you see?”

“I understand. We can start this afternoon. But be warned: The beginning is terribly boring.”

“I have History with Binns. I can deal with boring”, Harry waved it off.

“He’s still teaching? I had really hoped they’d have replaced him by now”, Elyx groaned.

“So you already had him in your first year?”

“Sure. Even Mum had him back in the day.”

And they went on to chat about their respective experiences at Hogwarts, Elyx told Harry stories from Fiore and her adventures with her guild mates and that way they managed to clean two rooms that morning.

\-------------------------------------------------

When they headed down to lunch, everyone was dusty, some sported bruises and George’s clothes were sooty. But they all were also very happy to have made new friends and successfully cleaned a dozen rooms, basically managing to do the work of three days in one. 

“The teams you formed were really well balanced”, Molly praised Elyx, when she handed her the plates to put them on the table. 

“I’m glad”, came the short reply, as Elyx was weirdly absent. She almost dropped the plates and if Lucy hadn’t noticed on time Molly would have had to fix them again. 

“What’s going on with Elyx?”, Hermione askes Erza. 

“Oh, just the usual. She’s planning something. It makes her zone out from time to time”, Erza replied nonchalantly while carrying the salad to the table.

“And what do we do about it?”, Ron wondered.

“Nothing. She’ll snap out of it sometime”, came the reply from Gray while he and Natsu positioned Elyx to sit at the table.

Everyone sat down and had lunch while Elyx still stared off into nothingness, sometimes mumbling and making slight gestures. Half an hour later, when everyone was already enjoying some dessert she suddenly clapped and focused back in on her surroundings. “That’ll work! Oh! Did I miss another meal?”, she looked questioningly at Erza. 

“Yes. But we kept you a plate.” Molly put the still warm food down in front of her.

“So, what did you plan this time?”, Wendy asked eagerly, scaring Carla when she leaned over the table. 

“Oh, just something Harry suggested. He wants to learn magic like ours and he’s got the talent for it. And that made me think of the others here. I don’t know whether all of you have the disposition needed for it, but I guess we’ll just have to test you if you want to join Harry’s training.”

“And that took you so long?”, Fred teased. 

“No. That was decided before we were done cleaning. I zoned out because I planned new strategies involving some of you trained to fight like us. And because I already planned out the training regime. The only piece I’m missing is a place in Hogwarts. I guess we’ll figure that out once we’re there.”

While the British wizards discussed the offer, all of them fascinated by Harry’s idea, Elyx dug into her lunch and finished it off almost as fast as Natsu had. 

“Alright. Now I’m ready. Who wants to know whether you can use Ancient Magic?”

“I do”, Hermione and Ginny simultaneously stepped forward, looked at each other and began to laugh. 

“Alright. Who goes first? I can only test one at a time.” 

Ginny let Hermione go first and so Elyx took Hermione’s hand and let her magic reach out. After a bit she smiled and let her go. “Welcome to the training. You’ve got it.”

“Got what?” 

“The magical container needed to work with Ethernano. We’ll explain what that is during training, okay?”, Elyx grinned and turned to Ginny repeating the process, again welcoming another pupil. 

Then she tested Ron and the twins. Ron’s container was small, but present, so Elyx decided to let him try. But sadly only one of the twins had a container at all. “George… can it be that you experienced accidental magic after you began studying at Hogwarts?”

“Y-yeah… How do you know?” 

“You have that magical container and it is developed like that of someone who used our kind of magic from birth. I think wandless magic should actually be your primary magic.”

“Really? That’s so cool!”, Fred congratulated his twin, not noticing the pained look Elyx gave him. But George did.

“What’s wrong?”

“Well…, I feel really bad to say that, but Fred has no magical container for our magic at all. It’s quite common in twins in our world that one kid of gets the full magic while the other gets none, …”

“I see. Well, at least I have my wand”, Fred shrugged it off, although he seemed hurt that his brother would do something without him. They just weren’t used to that.

“You could help train my guildmates to use their wands while we practice if you want to keep your mind off it”, Elyx offered with a sad smile.

“Yeah, I think that would help.”

Then Elyx turned to Molly, Sirius and Remus, who was also staying at Grimmauld Place for a few days. “Do you also want to join us?”

“W-we could?”, Sirius asked tentatively.

“If you have the disposition, I don’t see why not”, she shrugged and grabbed his hands. “There you go, you’re in Padfoot. Moony, come here. Yep, you too.” The men hugged each other, happy to be able to learn something new together.

Molly refused to be tested, stating she didn’t have time for training anyway. To prove her point she sent them off and began bustling around in the kitchen, cleaning again.

\---------------------------------------------------

The group willingly made their way upstairs. But when Elyx led them further up the stairs instead of into the ballroom they began to complain. “I really don’t think training anywhere but in the ballroom would be a good idea. We’ll need the space. And I’d appreciate if my house wasn’t burnt down”, Sirius addressed Elyx. 

“Oh, I think you have a wrong impression of the training you all are facing”, Elyx grinned, turning on the step and looking down at them with a mischievous glint in her eyes. 

“Well, then explain it to us”, Hermione demanded. 

“Levy, as the first part is yours, would you mind?”

“Not at all. Okay, so the first part will basically be meditating to find your magic. I know you already have some, but according to Elyx this feels different. She says it’s harder to find at first. But before that I will explain the theory behind our magic to you so you’ll understand everything and can use it safely. For all of this we think the library will be much nicer and besides give us the opportunity to read more about your magic while you meditate.” With a slight bow she turned around and headed up to the library, deeming the explanation sufficient. 

Erza grabbed George when the others were about to leave and pulled him after her into the ballroom. “As you are already familiar with this kind of magic, we’ll skip ahead a bit.”

“Okay. But I never did it intentionally.”

“I didn’t either. The first time I used my magic was completely unexpected. That’s why I’ll train with you.”

“I see. So, what do we do?”

“Run, for now”, and with that Erza requipped into gym clothes and began jogging around the room. George stared for a second because the shorts where so short but then he set off after her and soon they were in a comfortable speed, running round after round. 

After about thirty rounds George began to zone out. His mind stopped racing and he focused on his breathing and heartbeat without even intending to do so. Suddenly he felt something else. A pulsing energy that gave off a comforting warmth. He let himself be embraced by it when this feeling was interrupted by a gasp.

Once he focused again on the world around him, he realized what had made his companion gasp: The whole floor of the room had turned into something like a trampoline.

“Well, that’s an interesting kind of magic”, Erza observed while happily jumping around. The sight of the usually so serious and sometimes scary redhead bouncing about like a little child, made George laugh out loud before he joined her. Laughing they jumped and tried to do tricks until they were joined by Elyx, who had come down with their first “graduate” Harry and Fred to check on them. After taking in the scene all three of them joined in on the fun.

When all of them were thoroughly powered out and lay wheezing on the soft floor Harry asked how they would turn the floor back.

“Good question. George?”

“I don’t even have an idea how I made it…”, the wizard rubbed the back of his head.

“Let’s try visualization. Do you remember the feeling you had, the energy you felt when you did it?”, Elyx offered, rolling to the side so she could look at George who nodded. “Good. Then call that feeling back up. When you feel it again imagine the floor as it was. I’ll tell you when it’s done, if you want to close your eyes.”

George laid on his back and after a few seconds he had successfully returned the floor to its original form. “That was easier than I thought. So your magic is basically just visualizing things and then they happen.”

“It’s more difficult than that, but as you had already used it before – and Harry seems to have done so too before he came to Hogwarts – we wanted to see your affinity before teaching you the theory. So… take notes, because now you get the short introduction to Ethernano-magic.”

Then she explained to them that they were able to absorb magically charged particles – Ethernano – in their surrounding and transform them into their own energy and store them for later use. Every mage has their own “signature style” of magic or a certain affinity, depending on their character and intentions when first using their magic. As Erza discovered her magic during a fight it developed accordingly, whereas most of the guild-members chose their magic or inherited it. But in general every mage could do every kind of magic, although some might elude them forever, as they were too foreign to their character. 

Some mages even chose to later learn a secondary magic, like Natsu learned transformation magic from Mira. Or Elyx had learned illusion magic from Mavis, which she hardly ever used. 

“Did you understand all that?”, Erza queried, when Elyx took a short break to drink some water. 

“I think so. Just one thing confuses me a lot: You said that the magic is chosen when one first uses it”, Harry began.

“Exactly. What’s confusing about that?”

“Nothing about this in general, but about us to be specific. Does that mean, the others can choose their magic while George and I cannot because we used it already.”

“Yup”, Elyx joined the conversation again. “I had hoped, none of you had any experience, but it seems George just had to use his magic or he would have gotten magical overload. But why you already used it is a mystery to me.”

“Basically that was out of similar reasons like Erza. I was in a bad situation, but I fled instead of fighting”, Harry looked a bit sheepish, feeling bad about not being as courageous as the Fairy Tail mage.

“Don’t feel bad about it. I couldn’t have fled. It was fight or perish for me. I definitely would have liked it better if I could have run away from it all”, Erza encouraged him, guessing correctly why he was distressed. He replied with a half-hearted smile which encouraged Elyx to continue with the lesson.

“So our next step is to find out how exactly your magic works and how you can train it, so you’ll be comfortable using it soon. George, what do you think is your magic? I never saw anything like it before.”

Instead of George Fred answered: “I guess it will be a kind of joke magic. All the things he did during our time at Hogwarts were pranks and creating joke items. It actually was good inspiration for our shop.”

“Oooh! So you can also create something with your magic?”, Elyx gushed.

“I think so. Let me try.” And after a bit of concentration George presented her with a pretty purple rose. But once she sniffed it, the bloom popped and turned into a bird that continued circling around Elyx head, despite her efforts to scare it away. Everyone enjoyed watching her fight against the bird until she finally wrapped it in some cloth.

“Will it go poof in a bit or do I need to buy a cage?” 

George looked at the bird, looked at Elyx and looked completely lost. “I’ve got no clue. I don’t remember whether I put a limit on it.”

“As always. That’s why we work together. He often forgets the details or how to reverse something”, Fred explained. 

“Great. I’ll start by making it a cage. We’ll see how long it stays. At least it’s cute”, Elyx shrugged and transfigured the cloth into a birdcage and conjured some water for the bird before setting it down by a window.

“Your turn, Harry. Any clues as to what you can do?”

“I think so”, and he closed his eyes, concentrated for a moment and suddenly he was flying around the ballroom.

“Flying. Great. He can train that with the Exceed. I think Carla is the best teacher, but Happy will be glad to help too”, Erza observed, her arms crossed across her chest, while watching the wizard fly around.

“Alright, Harry, you can come back!”, Elyx called out while he tried to do somersaults at the other end of the room.

Suddenly Harry appeared right beside her and with a shriek she formed a shield with her fabric.

“Teleportation too! Fascinating. If he can take people along that could be exceptionally useful, depending on the range of course”, Erza suddenly had a notepad in her hand, writing all their findings down, before sending it back into her pocket dimension. 

Elyx meanwhile dropped her shield and took Harry’s hand again. “Excellent. Your container has expanded a bit already and is constantly filling up. And that presence is suppressed a bit.”

“Presence? You mean…?” he gestured to his forehead. 

Elyx nodded, immediately grabbing George’s hand, voicing her satisfaction with his progress too. Before the twins could begin to interrogate them about the presence in Harry, Natsu burst through the door, bickering with both Gray and Gajeel. But one look from Erza sent all three of them scrambling, hiding behind the girls who had been following them. 

“This meditation stuff is sooo boring!”, Ron was heard before he could be seen by the people in the ballroom. “When can I do interesting stuff like Natsu?”

Levy smacked him with a newspaper: “Once you’ve got the meditation down. But if you get bored after about two seconds that can take years…”

“But honestly, it IS boring! I mean just sitting and breathing, trying to feel some magic? There has to be a shortcut or something”, he looked hopefully at Elyx. 

“Nope”, she replied popping the “p”, just to annoy him. “No shortcuts, no aids, nothing, just you trying to focus on something very simple for a long time.” Her grin really vexed Ron, but once he remembered her fights with Moody and the other two Aurors he thought better of it, marching over to Harry to pester him about his newfound magic.

Lucy and Levy informed Erza and Elyx about the meditation practice, which had been interesting to put it mildly. Sirius had put a silencing charm on Ron to keep him from disturbing them and Hermione had completely abandoned meditating in favour of reading the books about Fiorean magic Elyx had translated. Natsu and Gray had been banned from the library because they were even more annoying than Ron with their constant bickering. 

\--------------------------------------------------

The ballroom was filled with exited voices and laughter when suddenly Tonks burst into the room. “Wotcher guys! How y’all doing? I brought Mr. Ollivander.” And with great flourish she indicated the old wizard in his shabby cloak who had followed her. 

“Thank you for coming here, Sir”, Elyx welcomed him.

“Oh, I don’t mind it my dear. It’s been years since I had the pleasure of experimenting with new materials, so delivering the wands made with them is no trouble at all”, Ollivander grinned, shaking Elyx’ hand. 

Then he looked around at the group gathered in the ballroom. “Mr. Black, thank you for your hospitality. Did you get a new wand already? If not I would be willing to owl you one.” Sirius bristled at being addressed, not used anymore to interacting with people outside the Order. And the reminder of his stay in Azkaban did little to soothe his nerves.

“I’m happy to welcome you in my home. It would be very helpful if you could get me a new wand, thank you”, he stated, trying not to be impolite to the old wandmaker who still gave him the creeps.

Elyx picked up on his discomfort and, trying to pull Ollivander’s attention away from him, said: “So you were able to work with all the materials I brought you?”

“Indeed, indeed, Miss McGonagall”, and, pulling out several wandboxes from his bag, he continued: “They were most fascinating. With your specifications I chose two woods for each core, because there’s always the possibility that I don’t get the wood right on my first try. Who wants to have his wand first?”

Immediately Natsu and Gray jumped forward, but were pulled back by Gajeel, who had noticed that Levy was raising her hand. “Levy goes first”, Elyx observed while trying not to giggle and winking at Gajeel. The Iron Dragon Slayer turned bright red and grumbled something about “stupid ships” which left the other boys wondering why he suddenly seemed to think about the typical Dragon Slayer travel sickness. 

“Alright, Miss Levy, which core is yours?”, Mr. Ollivander queried benevolently. 

“Umm… I-I don’t know, Sir. I’m sorry”, Levy stammered out, blushing furiously.

“No, no, Levy, don’t be sorry. It’s my fault. I didn’t tell them which will be their wand core, Sir. Hers is the magical pen.”

“I see. It was very fascinating to work with. A very nice power to wield, my dear”, Ollivander murmured while picking up two boxes. “The first I made is very traditional, Hazel, 11 inches, nice and swishy. Just give it a flick.”

When nothing happened, he took it back, handing her the second wand. “I’ve taken some more liberties with this one. It’s Beech, 6 inches, rather sturdy,…”, he trailed off, handing her what looked like a wooden fountain pen. Levy was delighted once she saw it, and once she touched it, purple sparks rained down on the floor. “Excellent. I had hoped the familiar shape would be pleasing to you.”

The next one to try his wands was Gajeel. “Working with iron was a first for me too, but I think the results can be counted as some of my best. The first one here is Larch, 16 inches, it has a nice spring to it.” Gajeel tenderly picked up the wispy wand, but nothing happened. “Try the other. It’s Mistletoe, quite unusual, but Miss McGonagall’s description of you made me think of it. 10 inches, very strong, as I wrapped some of the iron around it too.”

The second wand was the right choice for Gajeel. It was thicker, very dark and wrapped in iron. No one was surprised when it immediately began to shoot greenish sparks. “Fabulous!”, Ollivander exclaimed.

Natsu punched Gray in the gut to be able to choose next. He had the choice between Hawthorn, 13 inches and Oak, 15 inches and after looking at them for a bit, he tried the Hawthorn with the engraved flames first. The red sparks almost burnt a hole in Mr. Ollivanders cloak, but he was so delighted with the results, that he didn’t mind it.

Gray was next and after trying an edgy Willow wand of 12 inches without result he was glad when the elegant 15 inch Blackthorn wand with a handle made of the same ice as the core reacted immediately, this time freezing one of the other wandboxes shut.

Erza got an Oak wand with a handle like a swordhilt that was extraordinary 21 inches long, while Juvia was chosen by an Ash wand with 15 inches, after the Willow wand made for her didn’t react.

Lisanna got a wand made from two woods at the same time, Apple and Pine, measuring 11 inches and very thin. Lucy’s Hazel wand was long and flexible, but the handle was shaped after Leo’s key, which Elyx had drawn for Ollivander.

Finally it was Wendy’s turn. The little blue-haired mage was so afraid both wands could reject her that she had let everyone go before her. She even tried to make Elyx choose her new wand first, but the elder mage would hear nothing of it. “You need a wand and I’m sure one will choose you. I’ve got a good feeling about it”, she smiled encouragingly.

“This one is Birch, 12 inches, I shaped the handle like a feather for you. Very good for healing magic”, Mr. Ollivander handed her the wand with a bright smile. When she picked it up timidly, it emitted some brilliant blue and bronze sparks and Wendy squealed with delight at being chosen immediately. “Do you want to try the other one too?”, the wandmaker offered, holding out a beautifully carved wand that seemed to be covered with feathers when the light fell on it. 

“It’s so pretty!”, Wendy gushed, reaching out for it too. This wand didn’t emit sparkles, but a warm gust of wind, that ruffled the wandmaker’s clothes. 

“Well, that’s unusual! I hardly ever had someone be chosen by two different wands at the same time, but it’s yours. Alder is a very loyal wood, very reliable”, his tone made it clear that disputing his decision would be futile, so the Sky Maiden was left standing there with two wands, completely overwhelmed by that much luck.

“Th-thank you, Mr. Ollivander-sama! I will always honour these wands”, she chirped after a few moments.

“I’m sure you will, young lady. And now to you, Miss McGonagall. First I have this one for you, with your fabric as the core. It’s Yew, 14 inches, very flexible. Exceptional for transfigurations. Your mother would love it, I’m sure.”

Elyx took the new wand, and channeling her Fiorean Magic through it, transfigured one of the curtains into a snake and back. “It’s perfect. Thank you very much.”

“I’m glad you like it. And here is what I think will work best as your new main wand. Give it a try first, I’ll explain it to you later.”

With a sceptical look about his cryptic comment Elyx took the second wand, a simple one, so dark it looked almost black. Immediately it sent out sparks in all the colours of the rainbow. “This feels amazing! I’ve never felt this connected to a wand.”

“Excellent. It is made of Japanese Cherry wood, from a tree that stands in the Shrine on Ise, the most important Shinto-Shrine in Japan. I received the wood as a gift from a friend. It is only seven inches long, but due to the numerological relevance of the number it’s very powerful. The core is hair of a nine-tailed kitsune, given willingly as reimbursement after my father had saved her from hunters. The wand is strongly dependent on friendship. Only someone with many true friends can wield it to its full effect.” When he looked around at all the people surrounding them, Elyx understood, why he had given the wand to her. 

“I also should tell you that this wand is one of the rare ones that can be shared. It’s bound to you now, but any of your friends could use it if you allow them to. And if you die your children will inherit it.” While he had said that, he had already packed up the remaining wands, and with a short greeting, he marched off, eager to get back to his workshop, as he had been extremely inspired by working with the new materials. Elyx stood there dumbfounded, looking at the wand in her hand.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wrote this chapter without having thought it out before. I don't usually do that, but I was motivated, to post again this week. I really hope you like it.


	8. Chapter 8 - Day out

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm really sorry, I made you wait so long for this chapter!
> 
> The start of the new semester really kept me from writing. And not having a beta *wink, wink* also slows me down. (Looking for volunteers :) )
> 
> Enjoy!

The next few days were spent in a similar manner. In the mornings, they went through the house, cleaning the rooms, trying to make the whole house habitable again. That went by fairly uneventful except for the terrible day when Molly encountered a boggart in one of the wardrobes. Her cries alerted everyone, but Harry and Elyx were closest so they saw how she was faced with all her loved ones dead. Elyx was about to step in front of her, to divert the creature, when she was shoved aside by Remus who made short work of it. That day’s cleaning was cut short, everyone huddling down in the kitchen over tea, hot chocolate and biscuits, to comfort Molly.

After lunch, they split up: Harry, George and Fred trained in the ballroom, alternating between practicing their new powers with Fred helping and teaching the Fairy Tail mages how to use their wands. Which called for a lot of fire extinguishing charms, as Natsu repeatedly managed to just shoot some flames from his wand instead of just making it light up or levitating something. The others would be up in the library, mostly tended to by Elyx, trying to meditate and find their new magic. After three days Hermione discovered her magic, while she was reading a book on Fiorean magic. 

Later she would explain that she had mused about the usefulness of Archive and suddenly it clicked. Elyx was alerted to her awakened magic by the golden light that formed a kind of screen in front of the witch. Due to the nature of her magic, Hermione was allowed to practice anywhere in the house – it was unlikely she would break anything by researching to her hearts content.

\--------------------------------------------------------

Finally the day of the hearing arrived. Elyx and Erza dressed in simple muggle clothes, each of them with a backpack and camera, set out for their “trip” to the Ministry, posing as tourists. Soon they were followed by a very pale Harry and an anxious Mr. Weasley. While Elyx and Erza, after having their wands weighed at security, toured the great entrance hall with its grand fountain, they watched Harry go through the procedure too. 

“Don’t you think it’s weird, all the creatures are facing the wizarding couple in awe? They should all be standing there together, not one above the others”, Erza observed, drawing the unwanted attention of a suspiciously red-headed Ministry worker. 

“What a horrible thing to say”, he exclaimed in a blasé tone, while fussing with some parchments. “Of course the wizard stands above those creatures. He’s the only one able to use a wand.”

Elyx tugged on Erza’s blouse, keeping her from responding. “Oh, yes. My cousin just said that because it would be better to have all of them stand together above the Muggles, wouldn’t it?”, she offered with a charming smile. 

“Um… Indeed. That’s why Muggles aren’t depicted here at all. So, what brings you here?”, he looked them over critically.

“We are here on a holiday. Our family originated here in Britain and, although several generations already live in Japan, they want to keep us connected to our roots”, Elyx provided their coverstory and then decided to try and use the man to their favour. “You seem to know a lot about the Ministry… Maybe you could tell us a bit?”

The young man, whom Elyx suspected to be Molly’s “lost son” Percy, seemed flattered and immediately took the bait.

“It would be my pleasure! If you want, I can show you around a bit. Maybe you two would also be interested in watching a trial? I have to head down there in a bit, but after it’s done I can take you on a grand tour.” His cheeks had taken a red tinge and although he tried to give off an air of nonchalance his voice had risen a few notes.

“Oh, I’m not sure about the trial”, Erza began to participate in Elyx’ show, “I don’t want to see scary criminals during my holiday.”

“Don’t worry. It’s just about a student breaking the Statute of Secrecy. Maybe you’ve even heard of him? Harry Potter?”, he offered with a glint in his eyes that sent shivers down Elyx’ spine.

“The Boy Who Lived? Really? That would be something to tell my grandma!”, Elyx exclaimed, putting her hands to her mouth. 

“Do you want to accompany me then?”, the redhead offered.

“Yes. By the way, my name is Cana Alberona and this is my cousin Bisca Mulan”, Elyx introduced them.

“Percy Weasley. Now, come along, we need to get there a bit early, as I am the Scribe.”

The girls followed him, always gushing at things he pointed out, asking questions and taking pictures. Elyx took care to add some flattery to their conversation, to keep him distracted. They made their way down to level ten, where they entered a dark and dreary courtroom. Percy showed them to some seats in the amphitheatre and begged them not to take any pictures before heading off to the elevated seats of the Wizengamot and the jury. Soon people began filing in, filling up those seats, but the two girls remained the only people seated in the audience.

When everyone was seated the man in the centre called out to a guard that stood by a door on the opposite side of the room, who then proceeded to lead Harry into the courtroom. 

The young wizard looked even scrawnier and terribly lost in the centre of the amphitheatre. When he was asked to sit in a chair that was equipped with a decadent amount of chains he looked outright afraid, so Elyx gasped to draw his attention. 

Once he spotted the two girls, Harry felt much safer and after a slight nod from Erza took his seat, knowing that she would cut him out of there if everything went wrong.

“Are you ready?”, the portly man in the centre of the front row asked down the row.

“Yes, sir”, Percy replied eagerly, sitting at the very end of the front bench. Harry had hoped to see some sign of recognition from him, but was met with professional eagerness, ignored in favour of the parchment Percy was attending to.

“Disciplinary hearing of the twelfth of August into offences committed under the Decree for the Reasonable Restriction of Underage Sorcery and the International Statute of Secrecy by Harry James Potter, resident at number four, Privet Drive, Little Whinging, Surrey. 

Interrogators: Cornelius Oswald Fudge, Minister for Magic; Amelia Susan Bones, Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement; Dolores Jane Umbridge, Senior Undersecretary to the Minister. Court Scribe, Percy Ignatius Weasley –“

“Witness for the defence, Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore”, said a quiet voice from behind Harry. Thanks to Elyx he had been expecting his headmaster’s arrival, but he still turned to look at the older wizard.

Dumbledore was striding serenely across the room wearing long midnight-blue robes and a perfectly calm expression. He drew level with Harry and stopped, looking up at Fudge and the other Ministry officials.

The members of the Wizengamot were muttering. All eyes were now on Dumbledore. Some looked annoyed, others frightened and two elder witches in the back row waved in welcome. Elyx suppressed a snort at his theatrics, still annoyed with the meddling of the so-called greatest wizard of his times. 

Fudge stumbled over his words greeting Dumbledore, expressing his faked gladness, that the message about the changed room and time had reached the wizard on time, but was rebuffed: “I must have missed it. However, due to a lucky mistake I arrived at the Ministry three hours early.” Then he conjured a chair for himself and waited until Fudge found his bearings again.

When Fudge read out the charges brought forth against Harry, Erza dug her fingers into the stone bench she sat on while Elyx ground her teeth. Both of them were agitated about the injustice. When Fudge continued by questioning Harry without letting the boy explain anything a loud crack sounded through the courtroom.

“What was that?!” Fudge boomed, sounding only half as intimidating as anyone else would have sounded. But Elyx was quicker: She let out a shrill scream, pushing Erza out of her seat.

“T-the bench suddenly cracked! What’s going on here?!”, Elyx pretended to be scared and pulling Erza with her ran down closer to the centre of the courtroom.

“Investigate it, Weasley”, Fudge ordered, gesturing towards Percy. Then he turned his attention to the girls. “Who are you anyway? What are you doing here?”

“We are Cana Alberona and Bisca Mulan. We’re here on a holiday.”

“Where are you from?”, the square-jawed witch to Fudge’s left who had been introduced as Amelia Bones, queried. At the same moment Dolores Umbridge, the witch to his right, asked in an artificially sweet voice: “What brought you to this hearing?”

“Oh dear, now I don’t know what question to answer first”, Elyx stalled, playing for time. 

“Start with where you are from, Miss Alberona”, Fudge demanded. 

“Japan. I live in Nerima and my cousin is from a small wizarding community on Hokkaido. Does that sufficiently answer your question, Madam?”

“Indeed. Thank you. I hope you enjoy your stay in Britain”, Madam Bones almost smiled, as she liked the precision and politeness. 

“Now to my question”, Umbridge chirped, “What brought you into this room.”

“Are you now questioning casual onlookers? I understand and support the banishment of the press from the courtroom, but I cannot find a fault in some schoolgirls watching the hearing. Maybe one of these young ladies even plans to join Magical Law Enforcement in their home country?”, Dumbledore diverted the question and with a wink turned towards the girls. 

Erza got the clue and spoke up. “I did indeed consider a career in Law after school. If you don’t mind, I would really like to watch this hearing to get a better impression of my future field.” Percy was too occupied with investigating the mysterious crack to notice that Erza contradicted herself.

“Of course you can”, Minister Fudge spoke up, fearing an international incident if he threw witches from the renowned Nerima prefecture out of his courtroom. “Please take a seat down at the front, so you’ll see better. Mr. Weasley, what did you find?”

“Nothing particularly of note. Maybe the stone cracked of age?”, Percy suggested, while fixing the stone bench Erza had crushed, thankful the girls hadn’t told on him.

“Then let’s resume the hearing, we don’t have all day.”

Erza and Elyx sat down while Percy hurried back to his seat. Fudge resumed his questioning of Harry but was diverted by Madam Bones who was fascinated with his ability to conjure a corporeal Patronus. 

“What’s a Patronus?”, Erza whispered.

“A protective charm against extremely dark creatures called Dementors. It’s fuelled by positive emotions and only very powerful and skilled wizards can make it take a defined shape. And it takes loads of practice.”

“I see.” Elyx wondered why Erza suddenly seemed deep in thought about something she had said. 

Meanwhile Fudge had taken to discrediting Harry further, portraying him as a liar. Elyx was happy, Erza didn’t pay too much attention as she found it really hard not to punch the Minister. 

When Dumbledore finally spoke up to introduce them to a witness, an old squib-lady named Arabella Figg, whose name Elyx knew from the Order meetings she had attended, Fudge tried his best to stop her from giving her statement. But Dumbledore and Mrs. Figg successfully diverted him and provided enough evidence to get many of the witches and wizards on the Wizengamot to think differently about the situation. 

It took Elyx even more willpower than when she stopped herself from punching Fudge, not to laugh out loud when Dumbledore began to use the law to tear the Minister apart, successfully ending the trial with a full acquittal. 

\--------------------------------------------------------

After getting rid of Percy Elyx and Erza waited near the phone box for Harry and Arthur to emerge from the Ministry. “That went rather well”, Elyx observed, playing with a piece of string.

“Yes. I just wish I hadn’t drawn as much attention to us”, Erza grumbled, leaning against the wall her arms crossed over her chest.

“Ah, don’t mind. I doubt it will be a problem”, with a shrug Elyx turned her attention to a dog who had again passed them. “Padfoot.”  
The animal stopped in its tracks, looking as if it had been caught.  
“I know it’s you. Just come here and join us. I doubt he’ll mind the company. Just let me quickly change the colour of your fur”, with a flick of her wrist the string expanded into a thin piece of fabric that wrapped snugly all around the black dog. With another gesture the dog was suddenly a pure white with some grey markings on its shoulders and tail. Elyx looked at her handiwork and nodded. “Beautiful.”

“A bit flashy, don’t you think?” Erza observed, still brooding.

“That’s what I aimed for. No one would think of using something as flashy as a disguise.”

“Hrmpf.”

Elyx settled down on a cardboard box on the corner of the alley they were waiting at and Padfoot laid down right beside her. She absentmindedly began scratching his head. A few minutes later the phone box rattled and Harry and Arthur came stumbling out.

Harry looked in far lower spirits than he should have been after his acquittal. Padfoot whimpered when he saw his features and sidled up to him, rubbing against his leg, trying to comfort the boy.

“Did you pick up a stray?”, was the first thing Harry asked, but at the same moment Elyx said: “What’s wrong?”

Both answered the question addressed at them, at the same time again and then they burst out laughing.

“You first”, Harry offered.

“That’s Padfoot. I disguised him. What’s wrong?”, Elyx snapped, trying to get the trivial things out of the way.

“We just met Mr. Malfoy.”

“Crap. He’s always been good at spoiling things. What did he do this time?”

Harry’s jaw hit the floor. “You know him?!”

“Of course. He tried to get me kicked out of Hogwarts, claiming it was dangerous to have children live on the grounds.”

“Y-you mean…”

“Yup. Long, long time ago”, Elyx smiled cheekily while Padfoot made a sound very much like a chuckle.

“I think he’s manipulating the Minister”, Harry stated.

“Sssh!”, Arthur interrupted. “Someone could hear you. Talk about that when we get home.”

“Oh, Arthur, about that. I think Harry could use a day out, don’t you think?”, Elyx asked innocently. 

“Um… yes. But I have to work.”

“I know. But Erza and I could take him”, she took a step towards the redheaded man.

“B-but what would Dumbledore say…”

Another step brought her into his personal space, forcing her to look up to keep eye contact. “He doesn’t need to know, does he?”, another innocent question.

“M-Molly would kill me, if anything…”, he trailed off when the blonde suddenly stood toe-to-toe with him, her hand on his chest.

“Nothing will happen”, she purred. “So can we go? Ple-ease?”, her sudden switch to a high-pitched childish tone threw him off completely. He just nodded and watched her sweep off with Harry, Erza and Padfoot in tow.

\-----------------------------------------------------

Once Harry could stop giggling he asked, wheezing: “What exactly did you do? He looked like he was about to run to his mother crying.”

“Oh that, that was just unsettling him. One of the easiest techniques to manipulate people. Do something to push them out of their comfort zone and then switch to something they know”, Elyx had pulled another string from her pocket and threw it over Harry’s hair creating the illusion of a blonde ponytail while still hiding his scar. 

“What the -? What’s that?”, Harry asked, trying to pull the fabric off. 

“I’d rather you’d leave that. It’s a simple disguise. The same I used for Padfoot to make him look like that.”

“But why do I have to be disguised?”, the newly-blonde whined.

“So wizards won’t recognize you on first sight”, Erza chipped in. “From what we gathered you’re way too well known. This way we can go anywhere, as long as your friends don’t see you up close.”

“Aah. Nice. But next time please warn me”, Harry nudged Elyx with his elbow.

“Okay, Harry-chan”, Elyx giggled, nudging him back.

“Now what does that mean?”, Harry grumbled, grabbing at her wrist.

“It means we’re friends. Like a nickname or rather an endearment”, Elyx explained, ruffling his hair.

“Hmph. What would I call you then? Elyx-chan?”  
“For example. Or you simply do it like Sirius and say Lyx.”

“So, Lyx-chan it is”, Harry grinned from ear to ear, letting go of her wrist and running off before she could ruffle his hair again. She immediately followed him with Padfoot bounding after them yipping with joy. Erza smiled and fell into a light jog, keeping her eyes on their surroundings. 

Three alleys down she caught up with them. 

“… the London Eye would be great”, Harry just finished his sentence with Elyx nodding.

“What are you discussing?”, Erza queried.

“Just where we want to go. Right now we’ve got the Parliament, Hyde Park and the London Eye on our list. And Diagon Alley of course. Is there any place you would like to go?”, Harry asked.

“Harrods. And lunch.”

“Umm… okay. I don’t think I’ll fit in there… Or even be able to afford a pair of socks…” Harry blushed and seemed to deflate.

“Why? If we stop at Gringott’s there’ll be no problem”, Elyx shrugged.

“Why should wizard money be of help?”

“Baka. They do exchanges. Do you have your key?” He nodded. “Good. Now let me look at your clothes. We should adapt those a bit…” Elyx circled a sheepish-looking Harry thrice before nodding and setting to work. Once she was done he wore tight fitting dark-grey jeans, an emerald t-shirt and a black dress shirt. His shoes and glasses were the only things unchanged.

Erza requipped a mirror and handed it to the young wizard. After taking himself in, he smiled. “You gave me your hair colour.”

“So much work and that’s all you notice? I really should just take you home”, Elyx complained dramatically. 

“N-no! It’s all great. I just had to start somewhere. I love the jeans and the shirt. Maybe another colour for the t-shirt…”

“Nope, not happening. It looks really amazing with your eyes. Forget about Slytherin while we’re not at Hogwarts. The colour system in school is boring enough.” And with that Elyx was again marching off, Harry, Padfoot and Erza trailing behind.

“What was that about?”

“I think she hates the thought of having to wear a uniform. Master said she always had a knack for clothing and especially colours. Being forced into grey and whatever colour her house is seems to make her uncomfortable.”

“I can still hear you, you know?”, Elyx called back over her shoulder.

“Maybe you shouldn’t listen in on someone else’s conversation, Lyx-chan”, Harry shot back.

Grumbling Elyx picked up her speed even further. 

\---------------------------------------------------

Soon they arrived at the Leaky Cauldron and passed through it without anyone realizing it was Harry. Their first stop was at Gringotts where Elyx requested that they’d be taken to a private office so they could shed the disguises. 

“May your arrow never miss. My name is Rhagnok. What can Gringotts do for you this fine day?” A goblin dressed in dark blue velvet greeted them from behind his desk, gesturing for them to take seats.

“May your vaults never empty. I am Elyx Dreyar-McGonagall and this is Sirius Black, Harry Potter and Erza Scarlet”, when each was indicated they muttered their own greetings, after Sirius had changed back and Harry had taken off the piece of fabric. “I think we should start by getting overviews about the accounts of Mr. Potter and Mr. Black, then we’ll move from there.”

“Do you agree with that sentiment, sirs?” A piercing gaze settled on each of them, watching closely for signs of them being forced into anything. When he was satisfied with their responses, Rhagnok snapped his fingers and immediately two thick folders appeared on his desk. 

The goblin took the first of the folders and looked it over before snapping his long fingers again to make a sheet of parchment appear. “Mr. Potter, I don’t know what went wrong, but it seems you never took the inheritance test, that we need to verify your claim to the Potter inheritance, when you first came to our bank”, the clerk apologized. 

“Umm… okay. Can we do it now?”, Harry was really surprised to find out something was wrong. 

“We have to do it now or I am unable to give you access to anything but your trust vault. Please cut your finger with the knife in front of you and let seven drops of blood fall onto this piece of parchment. The knife is imbued with magic to heal you once the required amount of blood has been given.”

Tentatively the raven-haired boy reached out and took the small dagger which was decorated with garnets. Pressing his eyes shut he pulled the blade over his left index finger and let the blood drop onto the parchment. As promised the wound closed up the moment the seventh drop had touched the sheet and Rhagnok handed Harry a handkerchief to wipe off any blood that was left on his finger. 

Then they all watched raptly as the blood began to form words all over the page. Once it was done it glowed for a second before the writing turned black. Rhagnok took the parchment, adjusted his glasses and began to read:

Mr. Harry James Potter,  
born to James Fleamont Potter and Lily Potter née Evans,  
on 31 July 1980 in Godric’s Hollow, West Country, England, Great Britain.  
Emancipated.

Lordships: House Potter   
House Peverell  
House Gryffindor

 

Heir to: House Black  
House Lerner   
House Ravenclaw  
House Hufflepuff

Parseltongue  
Corporeal Patronus: Stag  
Triwizard Champion

 

“Well, if that wasn't enlightening. Quite a lot of titles", Elyx grinned at Harry, but her hilarity faded once she saw the look on his face. The boy was white as a sheet, tense and looked ready to flee the room. Sirius put his arm around his godson to offer him comfort and Elyx took his hand and gave it a squeeze.

“What does this mean?”, Harry croaked, trying to keep his composure. 

“Mostly good things", the goblin began to explain. “First of all it means you now have access to several vaults and also some properties all over Europe. Second you have the option of claiming your seats on the Wizengamot and vote about new laws and due to being the active heir to a Founder of Hogwarts you would automatically be on the board of school councillors.

But you would have representative duties that could negatively influence your education. That’s why I would recommend for you to just leave the political aspect of the titles dormant. Whatever you decide on, you will get your rings, which will work as identification with Gringotts, so you can access everything without having to give some of your blood all the time”, the goblin explained patiently.

“I really don’t want any more attention, thank you very much.” Harry shuddered at the thought of his hearing. “But I’d really love to know more about my family and houses. Could you maybe give me a short explanation or point me to a book?”

“Gladly. You will find all the information on your houses in the Chronicles which are stored in each vault and sometimes even in the house’s manor or castle. These are highly detailed but usually very interesting. You should also add your own information to them if you find the time. But if you want I can give you an abbreviated history of your houses?”, the clerk seemed pleased by the interest Harry showed in his ancestry. 

When the boy nodded vigorously Rhagnok relayed a short story of the Peverell family and explained that the Peverell line fused with the Potter line when the eldest granddaughter of Ignotus Peverell married Hardwin Potter, the eldest son of the founder of the Potter line Linfred of Stinchcombe. The Stinchcombes had been the continuation of the Gryffindor line, after the heiress had married a Stinchcombe. 

“As for the House of Lerner, it is a matriarchal house and was considered to have died out in the eighteenth century after three generations without a magical member. It seems the magic had been long dormant and your mother was the first to be born into House Lerner with magic. Lerner was founded when the heir of Hufflepuff and the heiress of Ravenclaw married in the fourteenth century. They kept their heritage to themselves because both didn’t want the responsibilities of their titles. That’s all our documents say about this house”, Rhagnok concluded, handing Harry a copy of his inheritance test.

“Thank you. It is way more than I ever knew before, so… Thank you”, Harry replied while gingerly taking the sheets of parchment he was offered. He continued to brush over the material while he listened to Rhagnok who now gave him a full overview of his accounts. 

Soon Harry felt his head spinning, unable to grasp the incredible sums presented as his possessions. The Gryffindor vaults alone contained more than he could spend in his lifetime and then there were also the buildings and businesses attached to each of the houses. 

“All in all you won’t ever have to worry about how to feed your family – even if you decided to have a horde of children and live a luxurious life”, the goblin summed up with a teasing grin.

Harry just nodded, again accepting the papers Rhagnok offered him.

Then Rhagnok turned to Sirius and they quickly went over the Black accounts. After conferring with Elyx, who took care of her team’s finances, they each withdrew some money – galleons and pounds – to take care of their shopping that day.

Elyx also opened a trust account for each of the Fairy Tail members that would be attached to a main account, so each could withdraw what they needed, but within reason. She knew only too well, how quickly Natsu and Happy could spend everything they had.

Half an hour later they exited the bank already fully disguised, but this time, Sirius had accepted to have Elyx alter his appearance so he could join the conversation.

Before they exited the private office Elyx had briefed them on their cover identities. She and Erza were going to continue to use Cana and Bisca’s names, while Harry would be going by Laxus Alberona and Sirius, whom she had given a spiky white hairstyle and some flashy clothes, would use the name Hibiki Lates, posing as an uncle.

“Why do you always use the names of people we know?”, Erza whispered, while Harry and Sirius were bickering about who looked more ridiculous. 

“Easier to remember. Especially Laxus”, Elyx shrugged, looking a bit sad at the thought of her beloved cousin.

“You’re still missing him?”, Erza inquired and was answered with a nod. “I still can’t believe he did something so stupid.”

“None of us can. I hate that he has been exiled, but on the other hand I see how it was the right thing to do…”, Elyx trailed off, still not over the debacle that was Laxus’ attempt to become guild master.

“Anyway, this is not the time to think about it. Let’s go have fun!”, she declared, putting on a bright grin and turning to Harry and Sirius. “Where do you want to start?”


	9. A Letter from the Author

My dear readers!

I hope you do not take it ill that I don't post another chapter to let you know this story hasn't been abandoned, but decided to address you this way.   
I have news for you, although they are not all good for this story. But first of all I want to emphasize that THIS STORY WILL CONTINUE. It's not abandoned, just very slow going. 

The best news is: I have found an amazing beta and will now continually republish the existing chapters in the betaed version. Meanwhile I continue writing new chapters, but I will withhold them and not publish anything unbetaed again. (Except for this letter). 

The good news is: I have plenty of ideas and already some crucial later scenes and chapters worked out. It's gonna be a hell of a read.

The other good news is: I have found a job! *Yay me*

But that's also the bad news: I have found a job and with 38 hours of work each week and continuing my studies I have even less time to write. :'( (And I have money for new books so this might also cut into my writing time.)

I promise to continue writing and I hope you'll continue reading my story. 

Once we reach the point where I'm going to publish the real Chapter 9 I will replace it with this. I hope you don't hate me now for slowing down even more, but I actually found that work is quite inspiring and I just need to get it all into my computer - there are loads of hand-written notes on this story.

Love,   
LadyChris

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! Please let me know what you think in the comments. :)
> 
> DISCLAIMER: Harry Potter belongs to J.K. Rowling and Fairy Tail to Hiro Mashima. I own no rights whatsoever to their worlds. It's just this story and Elyx, which are mine. I'm thankful I can play in the worlds of such great minds, but I don't claim property to them.


End file.
